Its time for all governments to act together to overcome this national shame.
The leader of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Dr Dean Drayton, has endorsed a call by the heads of Australias religious bodies for a combined Federal and State Government national forum on poverty, leading to the elimination of child poverty in Australia .
Dr Drayton said he enthusiastically signed the joint letter of church leaders, calling for the Council for Australian Government (COAG) to promote the poverty forum.
It is a national shame that Australia is now ranked 4th highest amongst OECD nations for the proportion of people living in poverty.
We normally look forward to finding out how well we rate on OECD scales, but this one is an appalling admission of failure.
The lucky country is becoming less and less lucky for more and more Australians.
Just two weeks ago in Canberra I addressed a Parliamentary breakfast on poverty. In that speech I reminded all present, as indeed I reminded myself, that on that morning some 500,000 children were waking up hungry because poverty was their daily reality.
The problem is so great we must get past political finger pointing and work together to overcome the blight of poverty in Australian society.
A new thing is happening in poverty in Australia: we are now seeing second and third generation poverty, where embedded unemployment leads to successive generations without the experience of work, but an expectation of welfare.
A national forum, spearheaded by the Prime Minister, supported by the Premiers and Chief Ministers through COAG, will put poverty in the spotlight and enable government, community and business to work together on a national strategy to get rid of poverty.
We have a great interest in this issue. UnitingCare, the Uniting Churchs community service arm, is one of the nations largest welfare organisations. Our professionals and volunteers work on a daily basis to keep the effects of poverty at bay.
In making this call on poverty the churches stand in a long tradition of caring for the poor and marginalised that goes back to Jesus himself, Dr Drayton said.
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Stephen Webb Media Officer Communications Unit NSW Synod, Uniting Church in Australia Box A2178, Sydney South, NSW 1235, Australia email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: +61 2 8267 4308; Mobile: 0423 259 945; Fax: 9267 4716; Web: nsw.uca.org.au/cu/ & insights.uca.org.au/ ------------------ The Communications Unit publishes the monthly magazine Insights, conducts public relations for the NSW Synod of the Uniting Church, and provides a variety of communications services. These include writing, editing, web consultation and development, desktop publishing and graphic design, public relations and advertising. For a consultation or free estimate on your project call the Communications Unit at (02) 8267 4307.
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