Position on poverty housing disability

Bruce Vaschina - (Former) Independent Candidate for Pine Rivers 2024

Freedom with fairness, compassion without coercion, democracy – not dictatorship

Position on poverty, housing and disability issues

Notes below probably need some more work but some initial views / ideas are noted as food for further thought.

Concerning poverty, it seems to be an unfortunate fact of life that wealth, resources and even opportunity to acquire them, are quite unevenly distributed. The reasons are, of course, like many things, quite complex but I believe in general that it is a combination of "environmental" factors (like family background and circumstances, location), and personal factors like natural abilities and choices (with delayed gratification being quite a key one).

Given this complexity and the element of personal choices involved, I do not believe it is appropriate for governments to take full responsibility for alleviating issues of unequal distribution of wealth and poverty though measures to correct corrupted systems specifically designed to favour certain groups over others should be vigorously pursued. There is probably also a very valid place for governments to use their financial resources to provide meaningful work to unemployed people (or people with disabilities who find it difficult to fully participate in the general workforce - see below).

I am fully supportive of private charities who set out to help people in difficult financial circumstances and will do whatever I can to persuade those with significant wealth to deliberately make good use of it in the service of others.

It is well known that in Australian at the moment, there is a significant problem for many people to find suitable housing that they can afford. It is particularly distressing to see families with children being unable to find a "roof over their head" and being forced to sleep in cars etc. While by no means the only solution, I do believe that in the short term, there is great opportunity to better utilise the whole building infrastructure available in society to assist people in need. There are so many buildings that are under utilised, particularly at night, that there must be a way to make use of these to at least provide families with safe shelter during the hours of darkness. I will be seeking to facilitate this kind of innovative utilisation of safe spaces at least as a "stop gap" until better, more permanent solutions to this problem can be found and I again urge those with significant resources to consider how they can best make use of them for the benefit of others.

I have much sympathy for the difficulties faced by people with disabilities and believe that it is right that the whole community be involved in caring for their needs and making adjustments to allow them to participate as fully as possible in society.

I believe a key element in improving the lives of people with disabilities is to improve their access to the job market and thus have the dignity of being able to provide for themselves and their family through their own efforts. To that end, I would be encouraging employers to make sure that when considering job applicants with disabilities that they look closely at what the applicant CAN do, rather than being too focused on what they can’t.

I would also say in relation to both of the above points, that I do not believe that individual employers need be solely responsible for the costs of necessary workplace adjustments to allow the employment of employees with disabilities. It is appropriate that a good proportion of such costs should be borne by the community as a whole.