The 2020 annual reports from the SA Department for Child Protection and the SA Guardian for Children and Young People highlight concerning statistics on the number of children in state care in South Australia. Taken together with news reports in recent weeks that highlight just how vulnerable children in state care can be, they provide a compelling case for action.
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Blog
Welcome to the SACOSS blog.
Poverty cycle puts pressure on parents
31 December 2020
What difference could a human rights framework make?
11 December 2020
Human Rights on the ground in SA – what difference could a human rights framework make?
Rights Resource Network SA: International Human Rights Day Event
‘Time for a Human Rights Framework for South Australia?’
Address by Ross Womersley, SACOSS CEO
December 10 2020
Workers are Paying to Work
30 September 2020
Do you use your personal phone or internet services for work? A recent survey commissioned by SACOSS found that 70% of the workers surveyed used their own phone or internet services for work. There were casual workers checking rosters online or being notified about work by phone, photographers and care workers navigating to different worksites, and delivery drivers phoning ahead to organise pick-ups or drop-offs.
A choice between community support and poverty-level Centrelink payments
23 September 2020
As COVID-19 restrictions slowly lift and borders begin to reopen, emergency payments and increased benefits introduced to mitigate economic and social damage are about to be wound back. Besides the economic impact, a return to pre-pandemic welfare income will plunge many back into poverty. Click here to view the opinion piece by SACOSS Policy Director, Dr Catherine Earl published in InDaily, 23 September 2020.
Beyond SA's Recession Gloom
4 September 2020
The nation is officially in the doldrums and many are doing it tough, but figures show that getting the virus under control leads to quicker economic recovery, and that’s a positive for SA.
Click here for the opinion piece by Dr Greg Ogle, SACOSS Senior Policy Officer, published in InDaily 4 September 2020.
Gendered Work and Coronavirus
7 June 2020
When social distancing and isolation at home was first required as a response to the coronavirus there was recognition of the potential for increases in domestic/family violence as families would be closely confined and violent and abusive patterns exacerbated. However, while these family violence issues are in the public domain, less acute but more widespread are the differing and gendered economic impacts of the pandemic.
Tax reform's role in SA's post-pandemic recovery
18 May 2020
by Ross Womersley
However long the economic recovery from COVID-19 takes, there is no doubt that the state government finances will be a challenge.
Low interest rates mean access to finance is as cost effective as it has ever been and therefore we can, and should, run budget deficits to enable us to rebuild the economy post COVID-19.
Coronavirus Tracing and Digital Inclusion
16 April 2020
The government is looking to utilise a location app for tracing people who have come into contact with someone carrying coronavirus. Such contact-tracing is vital for controlling the spread of the virus and (if there are appropriate privacy safeguards) an app may be of great use in this process, but not everyone will have the choice to use this service. Those without smart phones and data, or who don’t have the digital literacy to use such an app are at risk of being missed in contact tracing, potentially putting them – and the community – at greater risk.
Putting Full Employment Back on the Agenda
28 January 2020
There has been discussion in Adelaide policy circles recently about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with lectures, conference presentations and workshops by visiting American academic, Professor Stephanie Kelton, who is also senior economic advisor to US Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
Tax changes necessary to close a rort
15 July 2019
Industry heads in Construction (Advertiser, 8 July), the Property Council and the developer lobby are issuing “dire warnings” mobilising against the changes to land tax announced in the state budget (Advertiser, 25 June). And why wouldn't they? In recent years business and vested interest mobilisations worked to defeat the many tax changes federally, and the bank tax in SA under the last government. The power of a well-funded scare campaign should not be underestimated, and some upper house MLC’s already seem to be succumbing.