But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W. B. Yeats
It’s a cold morning in Geelong as I speak with Duncan Storrar over Skype. His service dog, Mango — trained to help him with the symptoms of his post-traumatic stress disorder — rests next to him in his mother’s small home. A former Housing Commission house, his mother’s rent payments were attributed as house payments under a now defunct Victorian Government program, allowing her to eventually pay off her home and own it outright. Having spent time living on the streets, his mother’s home provides welcome stability, and a base from which he engages in advocacy work for some of Australia’s poorest citizens.
Three years ago, Duncan was catapulted into the national spotlight when he asked a question of the ABC’s Q and A panel. “I’ve got a disability and a low education — that means I’ve spent my whole life working off a minimum wage,” he told the panel. “You’re gonna lift the tax-free threshold for rich people. If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life… Why don’t I get it? Why do they get it?”
Panelist Kelly O’Dwyer, who at the time was the Federal Small Business Minister, seemed dismissive of Duncan’s situation. Her response was faltering and she sidestepped the issue, talking instead about small business. The David-and-Goliath optics went up a notch when Innes Wilcox, head of The Australian Industry Group, brushed aside Duncan’s question by answering, “Duncan, I’ll be harsh in my message… You would not pay much tax, if any at all, would you?”
Duncan’s question, and the obtuse response from the panel, struck a chord with low-income earners and their supporters across Australia, causing embarrassment for O’Dwyer and her party — and that’s where Duncan’s troubles began in earnest. Within the week, Duncan found himself — and his family, work history and private life — fodder for hit-pieces in the Herald Sun and The Australian newspapers. His new-found fame had, just as quickly, turned to infamy, and Duncan and his family found themselves unwitting pawns in an ideological battle fought by entities far more powerful than they.
Poverty begets poverty.
What proponents of the “dole bludger” narrative often forget — or ignore — is the constant, ongoing stress created by living in poverty. Duncan is an example of the system failing its most vulnerable. As a child, his response to the stress of his family’s financial situation was to act out, running away and engaging in petty crime. At a loss as to how to guide her son, Duncan’s mother turned to Victoria’s social services for help. Their suggestion was that she make Duncan a ward of the state — but instead of being cared for, Duncan was placed into a home run by paedophiles. Duncan soon became one of their victims. At the first opportunity, Duncan ran away, but without the emotional skills to cope with the trauma inflicted on him, he soon turned to heroin to escape the pain. It was a habit that took him years to kick. Yet still, the post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his time in care remains. It rears its head in unexpected places, and has made holding down a full-time job nearly impossible.
Although each experience of trauma is unique, survivors of various forms of childhood abuse and neglect are over-represented among the long-term unemployed and under-employed. The poor emotional development, mental and physical illness at far greater rates than the national average. Inferior educational outcomes that are common among abuse survivors combine to diminish their ability to obtain and hold down work. Add to the mix a patchy work history and low self-esteem caused by childhood trauma, repeated rejections or job losses, and it’s not difficult to see why getting and holding a decent job — a seemingly basic life skill — is so difficult for many.
However, there is a growing understanding among experts that poverty itself is a cause of stress and trauma to children and adults alike, and advocates like Duncan are desperate for governments at all levels to acknowledge that not only are our welfare policies not working, they are actively contributing to the long-term social problems prevalent in low-income areas. It has been a deliberate policy of successive Federal governments to keep the rate of Newstart low. Ostensibly, this is to dissuade recipients from remaining on government support any longer than they have to — but in areas where jobs are scarce, it’s often not a choice. According to Duncan, Newstart’s low rate causes a plethora of social ills such as illness, homelessness, petty theft, drug dealing — even sex work performed by single mothers desperate to provide for their children.
#RaiseTheRate
The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), has been campaigning for a $75 per week rise in Newstart payments, but so far their campaign has fallen on deaf ears, at least in Parliament. There was some hope when, during the recent Federal election campaign, the Labor Party agreed to review Newstart — but no actual dollar amount was committed to. Duncan directly credits Labor’s loss to this issue. “Look at Rockhampton… The people who’ve never had a break their whole lives, they just cost Labor the election. They all voted One Nation because Labor fucked them around on raising the rate. They’re all terrified they’re going to get the [cashless] welfare card because Labor wouldn’t commit to getting rid of it… All Labor did was say ‘we’ll talk about it.’”
Duncan wants to see the federal government revisit the vision of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. “Bob Hawke reduced childhood poverty by 30%… that’s the best legacy that Bob Hawke had. Bob Hawke just died and the media didn’t say a fucking word about his best legacy.” Unfortunately, it’s not a vision that the recently re-elected Scott Morrison seems likely to embrace, having ruled out raising the rate on several occasions.
For now, Duncan’s efforts are divided between advocating for redress for victims of institutional abuse, campaigning to end poverty, and writing. His work gives him hope that things can change for those on the bottom of the economic ladder. “As an anti-poverty campaigner, I want to see that children in my community have a path out of poverty,” said Duncan. “What matters to me is that the five and ten year old children in my community have a guaranteed path out of poverty.” Unless our parliamentarians take a different approach to Australia’s poor, it’s a path that, at least for now, seems a long way off.
Follow Duncan Storrar on Twitter at @indica2007.
Follow the author on Bluesky at @kathoftarragon.
Image source: Tony-Media. (2017, August 22). Australian coins money cash. Retrieved from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/australian-coins-money-cash-2668839/