Tony Vinson Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney with the assistance of Margot Rawsthorne Brian Cooper University of Melbourne Data analysis consultant Contents Jesuit Social Services Catholic Social Services Australia Acknowledgments: iv PO Box 271 PO Box 326 Richmond Victoria 3121 Curtin ACT 2605 Ph: 03 9427 7388 Ph: 02 6285 1366 Foreword vi Fax: 03 9427 1819 Fax: 02 6285 2399 www.jss.org.au www.catholicsocialservices.org.au Preface vii Executive summary ix ISBN: 0957780354 © Jesuit Social Services / Catholic Social Services Australia 2007 Introduction xvii Author: Tony Vinson 1 Scope, nature and materials of the present study 1 Publisher: Jesuit Social Services / Catholic Social Services Australia 2 Choice of indicators 6 This publication is copyright. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, with- out permission in writing of Jesuit Social Services / Catholic Social Services Australia. 3 Cumulative disadvantage 26 Neither may information be stored in any form whatsoever without such permission. Any queries should be addressed to Jesuit Social Services / Catholic Social Services Australia. 4 Interconnections between the indicators 48 The State Badges of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, the City of 5 How the areas rank: disadvantage factor and overall Canberra Coat of Arms and the Desert Rose of the Northern Territory are used with permission. locational vulnerability 66 Design: John van Loon 6 Assessing the impact of social cohesion 86 ‘We need to find innovative ways to break the vicious cycles of poor 7 Summary and conclusions 95 parenting, low levels of education, unemployment and health problems that can afflict some individuals and communities. We need to find ways of restoring order to zones of chaos in some homes and communities – Bibliography 103 zones of chaos that can wreck young Australian lives’. Appendix: Technical appendix 109 The Hon John Howard MP Prime Minister of Australia Address to the 10th Anniversary Dinner Index 110 Westin Hotel, Sydney 2nd March 2006 Acknowledgements The author HE CURRENT PROJECT was founded in the ‘agreement in principle’ of the State Emeritus Professor Tony Vinson TPremiers and Territory Chief Ministers to cooperate by providing assistance in the gathering of the social data required for the study. A contact person was nominated ONY VINSON’S CAREER has alternated between university positions and roles within each jurisdiction and that person either rendered direct assistance or brought others who were better placed to assist into contact with the researchers. It is not T in the public service and community sector. He was appointed possible here to acknowledge all of the individuals or agencies to whom we are Foundation Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in indebted but there are officers and services whose patient and sustained help 1970 and in the mid seventies took up the position of Professor of require special acknowledgement: Behavioural Science in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Newcastle. Following a revelatory Royal Commission into the NSW prison system, for DATA Queensland: Rick Williams, Manager Research, Department of three years (1979-1981) Tony Vinson headed the Department of Corrective Communities. Services during a period of intense reform. An extended period as Head of New South Wales: Senior officers and research staff of the Departments of Health, the School of Social Work and Dean of the Faculty of Professional Studies at Community Services and Corrective Services, Bureau of Crime the University of New South Wales followed, as well as Visiting Professorships Statistics and Research. in Sweden and Holland. Victoria: Senior officers and research staff of the Department for Victorian In 2001 Tony was invited to Chair an Independent Inquiry into NSW Communities and Departments of Human Services and Justice. South Australia: John Glover, Director, Public Health Information Development Public Education on behalf of the Federation of Parents and Citizens’ Unit, University of Adelaide; Adam Graycar, Head, Cabinet Associations, the Teachers Federation and senior teachers’ groups. Many of Office. the Inquiry’s recommendations attracted support from politicians and the Western Australia: Shawn Boyle, Director, Social Policy Unit, Department of Premier community generally and resulted in substantial improvements to public and Cabinet; Tony Satti, Program Manager, Health Data education in New South Wales. Other smaller scale education projects have Collections Branch; Ian D’Mello, Department of Corrective Services. ensued and in 2003 the NSW Government honoured Professor Vinson with Tasmania: Bob Rutherford, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Premier an inaugural Meritorious Service to Public Education award. Concurrent with and Cabinet; Jo Hall, Policy Division, Department of Premier and these forays into public education, Tony Vinson has undertaken research work Cabinet. with Jesuit Social Services, Mildura Regional City Council and other ACT: Stuart Malloch, Senior Policy Officer, Social Policy Branch, community groups. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of New Cabinet and Policy Group. South Wales and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Northern Territory: Ian McCutcheon, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Darwin. National data: Centrelink; Australian Bureau of Statistics; Australian Taxation Work at Sydney University which recently conferred on him the title of Office; Health Insurance Commission. Honorary Doctor of Letters. DATA PROCESSING Brian Cooper, data analysis consultant, rendered invaluable service with the process- ing of the variables provided by the above sources and the preparation of the maps presented in the report and at the project website. PEOPLE Father Peter Norden, S.J., Associate Director, Jesuit Social Services, has facilitated the project at every stage and Mr Frank Quinlan, Executive Director, Catholic Social Services Australia, has been a source of encouragement and support. Dr Jen Harrison of the University of Sydney has provided wise counsel throughout the project and supervised the production of the final manuscript. Foreword Preface PEAKING IN MARCH 2006 on the occasion of his 10th anniversary in office, HE LEVEL OF social disadvantage in Australian society has been one of the S the Prime Minister, John Howard, challenged us to find ways of breaking T hotly debated areas of social policy in recent years. The tempo of that down entrenched poverty when he said: debate will increase in the coming months, as our nation moves closer to a We need to find innovative ways to break the vicious cycles of poor parenting, federal election in the second half of 2007. low levels of education, unemployment and health problems that can afflict This research investigation completed by Emeritus Professor Tony Vinson some individuals and communities. We need to find ways of restoring order to on behalf of Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia offers zones of chaos in some homes and communities – zones of chaos that can wreck documented evidence that can help ground that debate and take it beyond young Australian lives. different political affiliations and perspectives. With the publication of this report, Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Using data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Social Services Australia provide Australia with an important tool to address Taxation Office, Centrelink and the Australian Health Insurance Commission, this challenge. and a broad range of departments from each of the state and territory This research report, Dropping off the edge, identifies and describes the governments, Professor Vinson has produced a map that can only assist complex web of disadvantage that ensnares generations of Australians. The federal, state and local governments to better grapple with the reality, often entrenched, intergenerational patterns identified could easily lead us to hidden from our eyes. abandon any hope that public policy might be effectively deployed to His two previous reports completed for Jesuit Social Services, Unequal In address these problems. However, the report also identifies how and where Life (1999) and Community Adversity and Resilience (2004) focused on New public policy can be used effectively to overcome these long term problems. South Wales and Victoria alone. This third stage of our research covers all The report demonstrates that our strategies must be well targeted, multi- states and territories of Australia. faceted and coordinated, sufficiently resourced aand sustained. The policy and research arm of Jesuit Social Services, The Ignatius Centre, Jesuit Social Services has completed two previous reports on the has developed a research partnership with Catholic Social Services Australia, geographical distribution of social disadvantage in New South Wales and one of the largest networks of community service organisations in this Victoria in the last ten years. While this report now provides a national picture country, to produce this report. of the extent of disadvantage in this country, it also builds on the knowledge Dropping off the edge contains not only statistically reliable and consistent we have already accumulated about these two states. information about every population centre in this country on more than Dropping off the edge has been prepared because