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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-27 Daily Xml
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Social Justice

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (12:12): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that the principles of social justice, including gender equality and the rights of Indigenous and migrant South Australians, are critically important to the work of this house;

(b) recommits to removing all barriers to true social equality in South Australia including age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability; and

(c) congratulates the work of organisations on their social advocacy on behalf of all South Australians.

Social justice is a simple idea. It means that everyone in society, no matter who they are, where they come from, their age, their race, their gender, their occupation, their lifestyle, their sexuality, their health or their ability, has equal access to the same opportunities as everyone else. It is a simple idea, but it takes much work to deliver. When you live your life with the values of social justice, as I do, you know this work is never done, so we keep working. We keep working to break down the barriers that stop people living the life that they want to live.

As an MP, every day I come across instances of our society failing to deliver social justice and each of those failures troubles me. We fail to make sure that women are compensated for their work equally with the work of men. We still see too many instances of people discriminated against in the workforce due to physical ability and mental health problems. We still see too many people being disadvantaged by their personal challenges, rather than being supported to achieve their potential.

We know social justice goes undelivered over and over again to Indigenous Australians and migrants who want the same opportunities that everyone has but are not able to access them because of race, culture and religious discrimination. I also worry about the engagement of young people in our society. Too often, I hear from young people who feel they will never have the opportunities that their parents enjoyed. They want opportunities to learn, to be educated, to have a safe and affordable home, to live in a clean and safe environment, and to be engaged in the community, but all they see are roadblocks.

Today, we saw the data on rental affordability released by Shelter. Over the last four quarters, South Australia has dropped in terms of affordability in every single quarter. South Australia—our great state—is now second in terms of rental unaffordability. We have leapfrogged Sydney. To know that Sydney is a more affordable place to rent a home over Adelaide is shocking and we have to do something immediately to address this. If we do not, it will become a fait accompli: our children will never have the opportunities that we have. Those who live with social disadvantage will never have the opportunity to progress through rental cycles through to home purchasing; it just becomes a pie in the sky.

All these roadblocks leave young people, vulnerable people, everyone who cannot access opportunities that they want, feeling frustrated, isolated, disenfranchised and resentful. We must do more to deliver social justice and that must be started here in this house. I want to acknowledge everyone in society who works to break down roadblocks—the barriers and the challenges—that stop everyone in this community achieving the outcomes that they want for themselves and for their families. To name those organisations, I would do an injustice.

Many, many organisations in the not-for-profit sector and, indeed, government organisations, do a great job breaking down barriers and supporting people to live the life that they want. But it is clear that we need to drive this. To everyone in this house who makes it their life's work to deliver more social justice and to the members of advocacy organisations who tirelessly work on behalf of their community, thank you for everything that you do. Let us keep up this fight. I commend the motion to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Dr Harvey.

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