INDUSTRY & RESEARCH
campusreview.com.au
Poverty and
the pandemic
Health expert says COVID-19
will cause some Australians to
suffer for “many years to come”.
Sandro Demaio interviewed by Wade Zaglas
W
hile COVID-19 does not
discriminate, it will be
Australia’s poor, homeless,
people with disabilities and the socially
marginalised who will be affected
the most by the economic fallout.
That’s the prediction of Professor
Sharon Friel, director of the Menzies
Centre for Health Governance at
ANU, who says Australia’s “economic
and social services systems respond
[in] very socially patterned” ways.
“Poor people, the precariously
employed, those with big existing
20
debts, the homeless, people with
disabilities, the socially marginalised –
these are the vulnerable people who
will feel the disastrous effects of this
global pandemic most,” she says.
“They will suffer for many,
many years to come.”
Friel has recently co-written an article
about this “unfolding crisis” with the CEO of
VicHealth, Dr Sandro Demaio, and spoke
to Campus Review about what it all means.
CR: Who do we classify as poor or
socially disadvantaged in this country?
SF: The term covers a whole suite of
groups. There is the traditional way of
thinking about poverty, which is you’re
living with an income which is 50 per
cent of the median household disposable
income. Also, there is the working poor
in Australia. So people who are really low
paid in very casual employment with the
financial insecurity associated with that.
And some of the trajectories into these
forms of economic disadvantage start
very early in life. It starts with inequalities
in terms of educational opportunities, in
terms of the social connections, the social
networks that we have throughout life.
And that leads different groups on different
paths, whether it’s into financial poverty,
whether it’s into very low paid jobs.
The other ways of thinking about
social disadvantage are from a class
and also a race perspective. The racial
divides that we see within the country
create real disadvantage for people as
well. So, there are many different ways
that this plays out among people.
In addition, we’ve seen a lot of people
in Australia and across the world