Government is ignoring effects of rent rises

The G overnm ent’s new Landlord and Tenant Act w ill result in a steep rent r ise for m any tenants of old properties. T he A ct changes the basis of calculation o f rents of controlled prem ises from the 1940 valuation plus 25%, to today’s capital valuation.

I N C O R P O R A T I N G

F O R P E A C E N E WS

R eg iste red at the G.P.O., M e lb ou rne , fo r tran sm iss ion by post as a periodical.

No. 77 November, 1959 Price 6d.

The Act applies to all dwelling houses, including s h a r e d accommodation, combined shops and dwell­ings and lodging houses.

It means that tenants in such premises may have to bear the full brunt of gross­ly inflated property values.

The arguments o f the Chief Secretary, The Hon. A. G. Rylah, who intro­duced the Bill are in con­tradiction to his own Gov­ernment’s housing problem for pensioners and large, low-income families.

Mr. Rylah stated that pensioners and those, una-ble to afford to pay the in­creased rents should be the responsibility of the Hous­ing Commission or non­commercial institutions, yet the Government insists that the Commission sells 50% of its houses. This means that there are only 1,200 n ew Commission homes available each year f o r rental to meet the needs of 14,000 applicants.

Apart from the. inade­quacy of the supply, Com­mission rents have n o w reached £5 f o r family homes and although the rent rebate system has been re­tained in Victoria, it does not take into account the number of children. Even with rebates large, low-in- come families find it diffi­cult to manage.

Mr. Rylah repeatedly re­ferred to tenants as being privileged and stressed the p’ight of landlords. Un­doubtedly some owners are suffering hardship but the position of the majority was greatly exaggerated. Mr. Rylah spoke as if property was a mill-stone that could not be relinquished by the owners. He ignored the fact that property owners are free to sell, and even if t h e y must sell tenanted property, they stand to gain a good profit on their ori­ginal investment even taking into account the depreciated value of money. Property values for old houses haws soared out of all relation to the original investment or to the standard of the property.

Plight of Tenants:The Government is now

virtually abandoning rent control. This would not matter if it was also willing to accept the consequences. Mr. Rylah was correct in saying that “it was the duty of the whole community to undertake the task of hous­ing sub-economic tenants” but the Government in Vic­toria is not prepared to ac­cept the consequences of this policy.

If it is prepared to reserve all Commission homes for those who can only afford rental accommodation based on their capacity to pay, and if it is prepared to urge the Commonwealth to double its housing loans to the Commission, then there is nothing socially unjust in removing rent control.

However, if the Govern­ment is not prepared to ac­cept the consequences of its policy it has » responsibility to retain control to strike a balance between th e in­terests of tenants and the

• continued on page 11

No social welfare in State Parliament Session

T he Victorian S ta te G overnm ent did not produce its promised social w elfare leg islation in the present Parliam entary session which w ill end early in Decem ber.

In April the Chief Secretary announced the G overnm ent’s intention to in tegrate child w elfare, and juvenile and adult correctional services in to a new Departm ent of Social W elfare.

The Director of Penal ed. If the legislation is to Services, Mr. A. R. What-! make provision for the ad- more made recommendations ministrative structure en- as to how the changes might I visaged by Mr. Whatmore itbe implemented and the Government announced that it had accepted the main features of Mr. Whatmore’s proposals and that legisla­tion would be introduced in the present session.

The Government’s propo­sals provoked considerable criticism from welfare agen­cies but the Government made it clear that it intended to proceed with its plans and that legislation was being drafted.

Non-appearance of the legislation in this session

would mean amendment or repeal of existing Acts re­lating to Child Welfare, the Penal Department and Pro bation and Parole.

(b) Delays may be due to difficulties in getting agree­ment with Public Service Board regarding status of heads of Divisions within the proposed Department and officers of the various sec­tions.

(c) The Government may have decided to modify some of its original ideas.

(d) The Government maymay be due to one or more have held the legislation over of the following factors— j to avoid having to rush it

(a) Finalisation of a Bill ̂ through at the tail end of the may be more complicated session, than was originally «nvisag- If the Bill appears in the

NEED FOR M ORE RENTAL HOMES“It is clear from the reports of S ta te H ousing Com m issions

that in no S ta te is adequate provision being made for persons’ accom m odation in housing com m ission houses,” Mr. W hitlam , M .H.R., said in Parliam ent recently.

They are people who re­quire, first, propery to rent. Secondly, they are people who require houses without a deposit or on very small deposit. People in those, two categories cannot get accom­modation from any other source. In general, people do not invest these days in houses for letting purposes. The, excuse is frequently given that that is because of the landlord and tenant legislation in the various States; but at least for the last five years there has been no landlord and tenant legis­lation in any State which placed any limit on the rent or tenure of houses built during that period. There is nothing to stop any .per­son who wishes to put his money into real estate from building houses and letting

them at any rental that he can secure. But persons are not now interested in invest­ing in rental properties. The only land in which people will invest is unoccupied land. They hope that by re­zoning and other forms of legislation they will be able to clean up in a big way— to profiteer. All the States permit people to profiteer from the sale of unoccupied land. Those people hope to be able to get a very good and quick return on their investment. Australia now being an industrialized com­munity, there are more fav­ourable opportunities for in­vestment in industrial shares than in dwellings.

The money that we are appropriating under this bill provides funds for the hous­ing commissions and trusts

of the various States to pro vide finance for people, who1 mentecj want to purchase houses but’ who do not have a large de­posit. Last year the housing commissions received for their purposes less money than they had received from this Government in any of its previous years in office.

By continuing to provide this reduced amount for the housing commissions we are ensuring that people who stand in greatest need of housing will receive the least assistance.

next session it is to be hoped that the Government will allow sufficient time between its introduction and debate to allow social welfare agen­cies as well as Members of Parliament sufficient time to study it closely.

This is a precedent that has been created with social legislation by the present and previous Governments when the new Child Welfare, Adoption and Penal Reform Acts were introduced.

Most people in the field of social welfare will hope that the Government has had second thoughts concerning the desirability of its original proposals. Whether or not legislation is to be intro­duced there should be no ound reason for delaying the introduction of some of the reforms suggested in the “Whatmore Report.” The development of training fac­ilities for staff engaged in child care and youth correc­tional services and the ini­tiation of research projects can be undertaken whether or not the elaborate admin­istrative changes are imple-

People who wish to rent a- house are finding it in­creasingly difficult to do so. People who want to pur­chase a house on small de­posit or no deposit are find­ing fewer opportunities to do so.

Govt. Plans on Legal Aid

The question of legal assistance for poor persons is still under consideration by the State Government and no final decision has yet been made.

The Chief Secretary, The Hon. A. G. Rylah made this statement on September 15, in reply to questions asked by Mr. Cla-rey, M.L.A.

Mr. Rylah stated that considerable progress had been made “in the last week or so, and I hope to be able to give further informa-

I tion in a few days.”

Page Two “ N O W ” November, 1959

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MARRIAGE GUIDANCEFAMILY AGENCIES WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR SUBSIDY

T he m arriage guidance activ ities of fu lly-trained social w orkers in voluntary fam ily w elfare agencies w ill be eligible for any C om m onwealth subsidies m ade under the proposed M atri­m onial Causes Act.

This w as m ade clear by the Attorney-G eneral, Sir Garfield Barw ick, w hen h e replied to criticism s made by four M elbourne fam ily w elfare agencies of an am endm ent m ade to the m arriage guidance provisions of the Bill.

The amendment to Sec­tion 10, Clause 2 provided that a “major part,” instead of a “substantial part” of the activities of the organi­sation or branch must be marriage guidance.

The agencies interpreted this to mean that their multi­purpose type of family wel­fare organisation would not receive help unless marriage guidance was a major part of the entire activities. The explanatory note to the amendment did not suggest in any way that this inter­pretation might not be cor­rect.

In his reply Sir Garfield Barwick said:—

“You will notice from the Bill as originally presented that by Section II, an ap­proved marriage guidance organisation is required to submit an annual account of the whole of its receipts and expenditure, with its marriage guidance receipts and expenditure segregated. That would mean that *if Section 10 (2) (b) was left in its existing form, I could Approve a n organisation which had, say, 20% of its activities in marriage guid­ance and the balance in a variety of social or religious

works. I would thus be re­quiring the organisation to submit me the whole of its accountes as well as its accounts of its marriage guidance activities. In go­ing over the Bill carefully it occurred to me that this was placing an unnecessary burden both on the organi­sation and upon myself or any person who might hap­pen to hold my present of­fice.

1 had from the outset rea­lised that it might be con­venient for some organisa­tions to present their mar­riage guidance branch or section as the approved or­ganisation. On reflection, I thought that it might be much better to further en­courage the formation of a branch or section within the organisation and the assign­ment to it of marriage guid­ance activities with, perhaps, some related activity so that it could properly be said that marriage guidance ac­tivities formed the major part of the activities of the branch or section. It seem­ed to me therefore that I should alter the word “sub­stantial’ ’to “major” so that Section 10 (2) (b) read with Section 13 would encourage

the formation of the branch or section within a larger organisation and avoid the need to make any reference in the account being given under Section II to anything more than the activities of the branch or section. This course, it seems to me, will assist the administration a great deal and will also as­sist organisations such as yours.

SOCIAL W O RK ERSAlso I think my remarks

about voluntary workers have been taken far too literally. I have since made it quite plain in public state- mjsnts that I expect there will be full-time trained per­sonnel.

My only point was that I had hoped, and I still hope, that the central core of full-time paid personnel will always be supplemented by trained but voluntary workers. I do not propose to exclude the cost of full­time trained social workers from subsidy.

I quite agree with you that the State’s role should be to give encouragement to existing agencies engaged in matrimonial conciliation and that the work should be done by voluntary bodies. I think you will notice a line or two in the Second Reading Speech which says this very emphatically.

I much regret that you should have misconceived my purpose in effecting the verbal change in Section 10 (2) (b) or that you should have thought that I was in any way departing from my publicly expressed approval of the work done by the marriage guidance councils and bureaux and my inten­tion to support them. I hope these explanations will have removed these miscon­ceptions.”

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NOW! EDITORIALWIPE OUT THIS ANOMALY

Under the Commonwealth Social Services Act, an aged pensioner entering a benevolent hospital or chronic hospital is permitted to keep a portion of the pension for his or her own use.

Under the same Act the pension of a person who has committed a crime may be permitted to continue.

If, however, a pensioner is admitted to a mental hospital, either as a voluntary or certified patient, the pension MUST cease forthwith.

A pensioner in a mental hospital receives not a penny spending money and the mental hospital receives no part of the pension towards, the pensioner’s upkeep. The Common­wealth Government is absolved from any finan­cial responsibility despite the fact that the aged are a s ta tu to ry responsibility of the Commonwealth.

The discrim ination is obviously unjust and can have d istressing effects on people w hose self-respect should be strengthened and not shattered.

Pensioners in this plight must depend on the charity of others for their pipeful of tobacco, sweets or minor toilet requirements while the mighty Commonwealth pockets their pension because of this section of the Act.

The origins of this anomaly are to be found in the tangle of Commonwealth-State relations and in the unenlightened attitude towards people who were mentally ill which existed in years gone by.

The only argum ent advanced in defence of the anomaly is tha t mental health is a State m atte r and that the Commonwealth already gives financial assistance to State mental hospitals.

Both argum ents are weak. The Common­wealth does not apply the first argum ent to recipients of Commonwealth Social Service Benefits in hospitals or any other S tate institu ­tions. In the second place the Commonwealth only makes g ran ts to the States for capital expenditure on mental hospitals and not for maintenance.

The cost of g ran ting pensions to aged per­sons in mental hospitals and allotting par t of the pension to the pensioner for pocket money and the balance to the hospital would not be more than £2 million.

If the Com m onwealth is not prepared to take this m odest step it should begin by at least paying to the old person in the m ental hos­pital the sam e am ount that he or she would receive if in a benevolent home.

This would remove any feeling of inferiority and clear the Commonwealth of any suspicion that it does in fact regard the pensioner in a mental hospital as an inferior being to pension­ers in other situations.

This m atter has been raised on m any occa­sions by m any organisations. The review of social services that w as recently prom ised by the Prim e M inister should present an oppor­tunity for rem edying this injustice.

Editor: David Scott, Brotherhood of St. Laurence 51 Royal Arcade, Melbourne, C.l

Subscription: 6/- per annum.

EDUCATE FOR RETIREMENT

The problem of the aged, now that science continues to lengthen life expectancy, has never been m ore acute.

In countries w ith a h igh standard of living, m uch is being done to cope w ith the m ost pathetic cases.

In Australia, “Meals on Wheels,” for example, serves daily in their own homes the aged and infirm, whose, only other alternative would pos­sibly be an old people’s in­stitution.

Now, in England, social workers, convinced that “prevention is better than cure,” are turning their attention towards educating middle-agers to plan for their old age.

In a report entitled “Pre­paration for Retirement,” published recently, a special study group of the National Old People’s Welfare Coun­cil of Great Britain advoca­ted what could almost be termed “Old Age Trousseau.”

They suggest that at 45 every woman should start hoarding things like furnish­ings, household equipment and clothes for use 30 years ahead.$

Likewise at 50, every man should review his working prospects and ask himself whether, if he takes a lighter job now, his active life could be extended.

Middle-aged c o u p l e s should take stock of their outside interests and increase them by joining clubs, at­tending evening classes and taking an active interest in sports, music and drama.

By learning in middle-age some practical skill or hobby, they’ll have an inter­est to carry over into old age.

This is particularly impor­tant for men, many of whom decline rapidly after retire­ment purely through bore­dom.

The study group advises against retiring to a country cottage. Moving in the first place, they point out, is an expensive business and being away from family friends can add to loneliness.

Better, they advise, to stick to the home you know and invest in any labour- saving improvements that will lighten housework later.

A survey made separately by a group of clergymen for the council showed that the biggest problem for all was financial.

They discovered that, though most middle-aged people were aware of the loneliness and social isola­tion that results from middle- age, few thought about material things like housing and money.

COUNCIL SCHEMEBoth these difficulties

could be eased by taking out an insurance policy while still young to provide an added pension or annuity.

Big expenses, like mort­gages and hire purchase,

“The St. Mary’s Neigh­bourhood Project was set up by the New York Coun­cil J uvenile DelinquencyEvaluation Project.

The programme will seek to enlist and co-ordinate all neighbourhood resources in­cluding public and private agencies, a local advisory committee, volunteers and block groups, for early de­tection of potential delin­quents or children in trouble, and to secure guidance and services for them and their families.

The area to be covered, which surrounds the large but under-utilized St. Mary’s Park Recreation Centre, in­cludes a highly congested, mobile population of about 28,000 of mixed ethnic back­ground, and is a low-income, high delinquency and de­teriorating neighbourhood.

Among the characteristics of the one-year project are the following:

• Action and research to guide, and reinforce efforts of people in the area to im­prove physical and social conditions, especially early detection, help and referral of youth in trouble.

• Controlled study of the effectiveness of such a pro­gramme and how it can be applied to other areas.

9 Supplementing services by existing agencies; provid­ing short-term counselling

should be cleared off during their last working years and any big future expenditure should be foreseen by lay­ing in that bottom drawer.

The council scheme has been enthusiastically received in Britain.

Already, local education authorities are taking up the idea and arranging special courses for pensioners.

And some firms are trying to lengthen the working lives of their employees by moving them to lighter jobs before retirement age.

for immediate problems where agencies have waiting lists and cannot provide ser­vices right away.9 Continuing concern for those with serious problems, especially youth on probation and parole, to help them re­adjust to the community.© Vocational guidance and employment assistance to youth seeking jobs.9 Continuous follow-up and checking on referrals.® Establishment of a Cen­tral Register of troubled youth and families as a cumulative file, to provide an inventory of the number and range of problems.9 Rallying the neighbour­hood to marshall its own re­sources by developing in­digenous leadership.

Close co-operation of the schools and other City de­partments has been assured to the project.

Youth Camp Directory

Eighty Victorian youth camps are listed in a direc­tory issued recently by the National Fitness Council of Victoria. Descriptions of each camp include informa­tion on the situation, accom­modation, catering, recrea­tional facilities and eligibility. Copies of the Directory are available from the Council’s

| office, 146 Collins Street, Melbourne.

PILOT PROJECT TO AID YOUTH WORK

In the last issue of “N O W !” Mr, P eter Fry discussed reports from N ew York as to the m ost effective w ays of dealing w ith grow ing delinquency problem s in areas of that city.

A recent report from the Community Coun­cil of N ew York describes a dem onstration com m unity action program m e launched in October.

Page Four “ N O W ” November, 1959

The poor family an the United Kingdom

1 criticism of family allowances

“They are the least w ell off.” This is the phrase used by Mr. Boyd-Carpenter to describe the tw o and a quarter m illion people on national assistance w ho, in Septem ber, are to g e t a share in our increasing prosperity. T he “T im es,” com m enting on this in a leading article a fe w days after the announcem ent w as made in the H ouse, su ggested that the forthcom ing increases w ill foe a tem ptation to the “casual” laborer who has a large fam ily, to sh ift from earnings to assistance. At present, the “T im es” argues, this problem is still m anageable, as there are only 10,000 unem ployed m en w ith four or m ore children on the pay roll o f the National A ssistance Board; but w hat about the future w hen im provem ents in assistance rates m ay coincide w ith increased unem ploym ent?

This problem (never pub­licly discussed) has been with us for years: and it tends to be aggravated with each increase in national assistance rates. The contin­uous increase in the cost of living, not matched by reg­ular increases in family al­lowances, puts more strain on the low income large family than on any other section of the working com­munity. National assistance rates are by no means gener­ous and they are not ad­justed to increases in living costs until the existing rates have fallen some way below the minimum considered necessary for subsistence. It is seen that the discrep­ancy becomes most obvious. It is nonsense, at such points to talk about the temptation for the laborer to shift from work to assistance. What needs considering instead is an appropriate rise in family allowances.

In the course of a recent social survey in Cardiff, I came across a number of families who permanently lived below what the Nation­al Assistance Board would consider subsistence level. The fathers are unskilled laborers who have no oppor­tunity for overtime, bonus work, or priced jobs, and their weekly income is about £7/10/0. What brings them below subsistence level is the fact that they have five or more children under 15. Family allowances have, never been what Beveridge thought they should be, and the most recent increase of two shillings for the third and each subsequent child was made three years ago. At present the allowance of 8/- for the second, and 10/-

for each further child is nowhere near the rates paid in benefits or allowances if the father were out of work.

Take for example the Smith family. Mr. Smith is an unskilled factory labor­er. He has no chances of overtime, and his pay packet, after deduction of his nation­al insurance contribution, is about £7 a week. He has eight children, which en­titles him to £3/8/- shillings in family allowances. This brings his total income to £10/8/- of which 25/- are paid in rent, and another 25/- on the average for fuel and light. He pays 3/- in fares to work.

This leaves £7/15/- for Mrs. Smith to feed a family of ten people, to clothe them, to see to the household equipment and to have a little extra for the children. No wonder the “Times'’ speaks of the temptation for such men as Mr. Smith to shift from work to voluntary unemployment. What would he get in unemployment benefit and national assist­ance, if he really decided to give up work? First of all, what would he be entitled to? The two questions are not synonomous.

The National Assistance, Board supplements unem­ployment benefits, and actual payments vary according to the ages of the children and the size of the rent. Mr. Smith has two children under five, for whom the. allowance would be 14/6. He has three children between 5 and 11, for whom 17/- each would be paid, and for his three eldest children between 11 and 16—£1 each Is allowed. For himself and his wife he would at present

get £3/16/-, and as it is normal practice for the NAB to meet the actual rent, he would get another 25/-. This would be altogether £12/1/- per week while Mr. Smith is unemployed. He would, indeed be better off by £1/13/- and allowing for fares to work, wear and tear on clothes, free school meals for his children while he is out of work, and pay­ment of medical expenses by the NAB, he would be considerably better off when out of work.

What aotualiy happens is, of course, another story. To counteract this ‘temptation’ (i.e. the desire to receive a subsistence income) the NAB has the power to adjust allowances in relation to the wages normally earned by the applicant. Paragraph 5 of the National Assistance (Determination of Needs) Regulation (1948) states:

“The need for assistance of an applicant. . . shall not, unless there are special cir­cumstances, be determined at an amount which . . . would exceed the amount of his net weekly earnings if he were employed full-time in his normal occupation.”

This regulation introduces the principle of “Wages stop” as it is commonly referred to in computing allowances for applicants. It means, in fact, that as a rule allow­ances are adjusted to be some 5/- to 10/- below a man’s normal spending wage, although the NAB empha­sises that in the. cases of “special hardship” they will strictly adhere to this regu­lation. In the case of Mr. Smith, a• deduction of some £2 a week would be made, so that he would not find

This article by H a rr ie t t Wilson appear­ed in the A ugust 1st issue of the “New S tatesm an”. It describes the plight of low-income, large familes and the inade­quacy of family allowances. The author suggests tha t we can become so obsessed with the myth of the welfare s tate and general prosperity tha t the plight of the needy is overlooked. The article makes the suggestion tha t preoccupation with mental health aspects of social welfare may obscure insuperable material diffi­culties. The article contains much that is applicable to similar families in A us­tralia.

himself in a more advan­tageous position financially while unemployed. The dil­emma of the NAB is ob­vious, and the way it is solved is the obvious way.

But should we allow a stale of affairs to continue in which children are ex­pected to be, brought up on incomes which are some­times well below subsistence level? Should the low in­come earner be penalised merely because his family is larger than the national average? It may be said, that there are not many such families, and that it is not worth bothering about a small fraction of the popu­lation. It is difficult to make a correct estimate. Of the 2.5 million or so un­skilled labourers 2 per cent, that is about 45,000, have more than five children un­der 15 years old living with them. Not all of them, how­ever, would be very low income earners, and not all would qualify for the high­est assistance allowances as they may have very young children. Even if only half come within the category, this would mean that over 100,000 children are at pres­ent living below subsistence level. But do numbers mat­ter? If we agree on the principle that our welfare state provides a minimum for those in need, we should not let a single family struggle along on an income below that merely because family allowances are insufficient.

The case for an increase in family allowances is, in­deed, imperative. There should be a sliding scale

to allow for increased ex­penditure at higher ages, and behind that there should be mi extra payment for each additional child so that the really large family would benefit. I suspect that a good many of what are now unfortunately called “prob­lem families” have reached this stage primarily because they have to manage per­manently on an income be­low subsistence level.

We would save a lot of public expense in carrying along these families if we raised family allowances. So­cial workers now tend to handle these “problem fam­ilies” as psychiatric casual­ties, as maladjusted or immature personalities, with­out first making sure that it is not perhaps some insuper­able material difficulties that have brought about frustra­tion situations. This is symp­tomatic; are we not all to some extent obsessed by the myth of the welfare state, in which all is well and the needy are looked after?

The alertness of the criti­cal observer, and, indeed a sense of social justice are fast disappearing and people be­come preoccupied with “mental health’ instead. Un­less we remain aware of our radical traditions and unless we continually exercise our sense of social justice, we shall soon reach the stage of Tweedledum and Tweedle- dee, and in that brave new single-party world there will be plenty of time to discuss and preoccupy ourselves with he state of our mental health adjustment to existing con­ditions.

Novem ber, 1959 “ N O W ” P age Five

M.P.’s views on Marriage GuidanceM any m em bers of the H ouse of R epresentatives contributed

to the C om m ittee debates on the m arriage guidance section of the M atrim onial Causes Bill. T he fo llow ing extracts from the debates are representative of the v iew s expressed.

work but in the follow-up upon it the blessing of theD efin ition:“I have not attempted to

define marriage guidance. I considered I should leave that term undefined so that there was no need to con­fine the activities too tightly. I have no doubt that mar­riage guidance may very often spring out of some social welfare work with regard t o children. This may lead to marriage guid­ance. On the other hand, it may stretch back, on oc­casions, into pre-marita>l ad­vice or training.”

—The Attorney-General, Sir Garfield Barwick.

Research:“I hope tha-t this bill will

not mean some little piece­meal sort of effort but rather that marriage guidance wili be comprehensive, scientific and thorough. I hope that research activities will be included. The bodies should include some people with professional knowledge. I hope that there will be in­sistence that the bodies shall include people who are skill­ed, not only in psychological

techniques that are neces­sary in order to check on the effectiveness of th e methods that are being used.

I hope that marriage guid­ance bodies will not merely observe symptoms and treat what may be regarded as results. I hope they will be equipped, both financially and with staff, to carry out the fundamental inquiries into sociological problems and to go into the larger questions of marriage break­downs.”

—Mr. L. J. Reynolds, (N.S.W.)

O rganisations:“In the fields of human

relations and public welfare, those organisations which grow from goodness itself, which are established in communities for the pur­pose of helping people, and which grow in this field of activity as we have seen various organisations grow, perform outstanding service to the community. But there is always the danger where a n artificial organisation

techniques and social case grows up and has bestowed

Government by the distri­bution of public moneys. I should like to develop the thought suggested by the Attorney-General that es­tablished organisations be afforded an opportunity to continue to serve the com­munity by providing the ser­vices that they have per­formed over the years.”

—Mr. Luchetti, (N.S.W.)

Full-T im e Service:“Money must be made

available to enable this to be a full-time job so that guidance can be given dur­

ing the day. With poor peo­ple, when an already bad situation must be exagger­ated by the loss of pay which would be involved if the husband remained away from work, marriage guid­ance organisations may need authority to reimburse the husband so that he and his wife may have the benefit of marriage guidance in the quiet surroundings w i t h which they a r e familiar. T h e people undertaking marriage guidance m u s t know something of medi­cine, something of psychol­ogy and something of the spiritual requirements that make for a successful and happy marriage. Not every­body has this knowledge.”

—Mr. Clyde Cameron, (S.A.)

T rain ing:While we are waiting for

people to be trained we should make full use of all available agencies and even if in some cases mistakes will be made we cannot af­ford to wait for perfection. I am not so sure that be­cause of their devotion to the work and to the cause of preserve marriage, volun­tary workers will not in many ways be much more suitable than people who will accept the work as an occupation or calling.

I ask the Minister to en­gage the services of those people, full-time and part- time and whether a person be a volunteer or a part- time worker or a profession­al and full-time worker.” —The Hon. A. A. Calwell,

(Vic.)

WELFARE OFFICERS TO REPLACE SOCIAL WORKERSIt is unlikely that the particular academ ic qualifications

required for social w orkers at present em ployed in the D epart­m ent of Im m igration w ould be essential for w elfare w orkers who m ay replace the social w orkers.

The Minister of Immi-, Department. . Mr. Whitlam had askedgration, The Hon. A. R. Mr. Downer added that for information concerning Downer, made this com-! the welfare workers would the qualifications and dutiesment in replying to ques- • more appropriately be ex- tions asked in Parliament pected to have experience by Mr. Whitlam concerning and a general aptitude for the proposed reduction in I welfare work rather than the number of social work- j to provide a clinical service ers now employed by the ’ in specific cases.

of the 23 social workers who have hitherto been em­ployed and the seven who are to be retained in em­ployment.

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THE COLOMBO PLAN TO CONTINUEW hilst not w ish ing to take aw ay from the jubilant note

of P ress reports about the continuance of the Colombo Plan, “N O W !” su g g ests that it is only realistic thinking that has brought the Plan’s extension about. H ow , at th is stage in the world’s history, could the Colom bo Plan aid not continue?

Melbourne’s “Age,” in­deed, goes so far as to sug­gest that the Plan is prob­ably with us forever. Fig­ures look impressive . . . since the inception of the Colombo Plan 6,000 million dollars aid has been chan­nelled into South and South- East Asia member countries, the services of 10,000 ex­perts have been provided and training ha'S been given to 18,000 people . . . but during that time the popu­lation of the area has risen by 10 million a year, stand­ing now at 670 million. This brings a realisation that the surface of needed help has not been scratched. It is evident, of course, that the really imminent problem lies within these countries. No outside help can go on in­definitely while population increases are taking place at such frightening rates.THE BLUNT WORD AND

THE FRANK Meantime it may bode

well well for the Columbo Plan that blunt words were exchanged at the ministerial talks held in Jogjakarta. Often some straight mind- speaking members are ex­periencing a family feeling? President Sukarno of Indo­

nesia said that the donor nations must not hope to remake Colombo Plan re­cipients “in their own im­age.” If some of the early handling of the Colombo Plan matters perhaps erred slightly in this sense, it would have been only in the form of “Beginners’ mis­takes” for the whole basis of the Plan is one of “no strings.”

NO POLITICAL CONDITIONS

Each year’s projects for development are submitted by the recipient nations and there are no political con­ditions attached to the aid which is granted. As the Melbourne “Age” puts it

“The Colombo Plan might not be adequate to meet the demands of Asia’s rising population but it cannot be described as a form of eco­nomic “squeeze.” There comls together under this splendid Scheme the eco­nomically strong and the economically weak — those with established economies and those whose economies are currently being rebuilt to new patterns. In South Asia, with which the Col­ombo Plan is concerned, live a quarter of humanity! The 21-Nation Group has the heavy-yet-splendid res­ponsibility of helping to sup­plement national develop­ment programmes.

N E W INFO RM ATIO N L E A F L E T FOR FOOD FOR PEACE CAM PAIGN

If you w ould like a copy of the new leaflet, fill in this coupon. If you w ish copies mailed to friends please attach a list o f nam es and addresses.N am e..................................................................................

A ddress..............................................................................

P lease mail to The O rganising Secretary, Feed for Peace Campaign, c / - Brotherhood of St. Laurence, 51 R oyal Arcade, Melbourne.

A BRIDGE OF FRIENDSHIP - AUSTRALIA/ASIAR ole of the Food For Peace Campaign

T he role of the Food for Peace Campaign is that of a bridge of friendly assistance betw een Australia and Asia. It has tw o main objects: ONE to aw aken Australians to the need to help m illions ex istin g in poverty in m any parts of Asia and TW O1 tohelp alleviate at leas

NOT JUST HANDOUTS OF FOOD

Food for Peace does not simply send handouts of food. The hungry man is hungry again tomorrow. Typical instances of assist­ance supplied by the Cam­paign are:

® Powdered milk f o r school children in a Nepalese village.

@ Vitamin tablets for hos­pital patients where these were non-existant (also in Nepal.)

• The providing of water pipes to the same hos­pital where formerly water was carried by hand.

: som e of this.

® The supply of dates (dates have a high pro­tein content) to a girl’s school in Almorat, North­ern India.

This is a small achieve­ment but the FOOD FOR PEACE CAMPAIGN IS DETERMINED TO MUL­TIPLY ITS EFFORTS. Every instance of assistance is known to and recom­mended by a social worker liaison officer and the Cam­paign plans to concentrate its efforts, where possible, on projects of self-help. The fullest measure of support is sought for this most im­portant work, especially whereby one person tells others about it.

FOUR WiAYS TO ASSIST F.F.P.C.

(and you may think of others)

1. Requesting a Food for Peace Campaign speaker to address a meeting or other gathering.

2. By holding a function to aid the work.

3. By forming a F.F.P.C. working auxiliary.

4. By sending a monetary donation or by under­taking regular subscrip­tions.

If readers wish to do one or more of these they are invited to write to: The Or­ganising Secretary, Food for Peace Campaign, care of Brotherhood of St. Laur­ence, 51 Royal Arcade, MeL bourne, Victoria.

November, 1959 “ N O W ” Page Seven

AT LOiG LASTA t long last, it seem s, the W estern W orld is w aking up

to the deadly serious problem of the needs of under-developed countries. For too long voices have cried in the unheeding w ilder­ness. N ow Leaders are speaking forthrightly.

T he front pages o f new spapers carry item s like this s ta te ­m ent by the Prim e M inister of N ew Zealand.

Asia Needs Food Before Democracy-N.Z. Leader

JO G JAK ARTA, N o v em b er 1 2 . —- T h e greatest dam age to d em ocratic in stitu tio n s was h u n g er , th e N ew Z ealand P r im e M in ister (M r. N a sh ) to ld th e C olom b o P lan c o n fe r ­en ce today.

President E isenhow er gave stem em phasis to the m atter in h is armchair telecast w ith Britain’s Prim e M inister, Mr. M ac­Millan, in London. Som e of his statem ents w ere:President Eisenhower: “I

think the problem of the under-developed nations is more important for Western civilisation than this prob­lem of the Soviet-Western differences. There are mil­lions of people living today without sufficient food, clo­thing and health facilities. They are not going to re­main quiescent. They are comparing their lot with ours, with us sitting here this evening.

They are just going to have an explosion if we do not help them; AND THE BIGGEST CO-OPERAT­IVE JOB OF ALL IN THE WORLD WHICH CALLS ITSELF CIVILISED IS TO HELP THOSE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN ACHIEVE THEIR LEGITI­MATE ASPIRATIONS.”

But words are not enough. And all that this really boils down to is that at long last ihis crucial problem is being looked at; not simply poked into a shady pigeon-hole! There was another pertinent statement th e President made:

“I LIKE TO BELIEVE THAT THE PEOPLE, IN THE LONG RUN, ARE

Bishops Commend Food For Peace

CampaignThe recent conference of

archbishops and bishops at “Gilbulla” near Sydney com­mended the Food For Peace Campaign and called upon all churchmen “in their con­dition of comparative plenty, to remember the millions of our fellow men in under- plight is continual under­developed countries whose nourishment.”

GOING TO DO MORE T O PROMOTE PEACE THAN OUR GOVERN­MENTS.”

There was no small meas­ure of wisdom in these words. The people must be concerned in promoting peace. And the promotion of peace is one. with ‘assist­ing the under - developed countries to achieve their legitimate aspirations.’ The people o f Australia are bound t o concern them­selves with the sordid plight of the millions living in the same hemisphere. How can we be proud of our material achievements in this well- favoured country when we show no spiritual concern for the millions of human beings—many of them only toddlers — who are in the. grip of gruelling poverty, whose beds are often pave­ments and for whom each day means the indignity of begging subsistence from other human beings! This is not how ‘people’ were

meant to exist.The article headed “A

Bridge of Friendship” on this page points the way for Australians to do at least something to ease the lot of some of the victims of these appalling conditions. And—here is the main point —if Australians vigorously tackled the task they could set the example for other countries to follow.

THE POSITIVE APPROACH

As Denis Warner, Aus­tralian journalist just re­turned from an Asian tour, so realistically points out: “The Western effort is pri­marily negative, anti-Com- munist and military, while the Communists are positive and ideological, holding out the promise of change and the marxist utopia.” Let the people of Australia be posi­tive, strong in voice and action that more and much more must be done for the “have-not” people of Asia.

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T here is at this tim e a genuine shortage— a minim um of about 48,000 dw ellings in Australia, Mr. Turner, M .H.R. said in Parliam ent. Mr. Turner, a Liberal M .H.R. (N .S .W .) w as speakingin the debates cn the capital housing capital loan, capital Bill, which authorizes Com m onwealth loans to the S ta tes for housing purposes.“Secondly, this can be

greatly inflated within wide limits by the number of sub-standard homes, which, however, may not have reached the stage of demo­lition. Thirdly, the number of applicants probably tends to be exaggerated because a certain number may well overlap; the same person may well have applied to, and be on the books of, several institutions or auth­orities and some, having found homes, may neverthe­less have neglected to re­move their names from the lists of applicants.

Fourthly, the number of applicants on the books of some authorities, for ex­ample, the War Services Homes Division, may be in­flated because they offer such favourable terms — more favourable than rents or terms now payable in respect of premises at pres­ent occupied by the appli­cants. In other words, the cheapest shops attract the most customers. Fifthly, some people, though they

have, a sufficient income to acquire a decent home, may prefer to remain in a sub­standard dwelling because they are unwilling to save. This applies to a certain number of housing commis­sion applicants. Sixthly — and this, I think, is the most interesting point—while, the overall housing situation is improving satisfactorily, some people do not fit into the existing framework.

Here, four classes can be distinguished. The first is that shortages of accommo­dation occur in some places and surpluses in others. Sec­ondly, some people who pre­fer individual homes — a common and worthy Aus­tralian preference—are for­ced into flats and would like to get out of them. Thirdly, it seems more than probable that a significant number of people, because their place of living is not fixed and settled or because their sav­ings are not sufficient for a deposit, want rental accom­modation in excess of the supply. Fourthly, some,

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such as pensioners, whether age pensioners, invalids or widows ,simply cannot af­ford decent accommodation and the supply of dwellings whose rentals are subsidized is very inadequate.

What emerges from my argument is, the need for a full review of the position, comparable to that made by the Department of National Development in 1956.

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Big drop in stock of rent homesMr. Clcarey, M.H.R.

The only authorities that are building houses for rent now are the S ta te authorities, and they are up against tw o very great difficulties in trying to m eet the problem o f building houses for rent. T he first difficulty is that, having built the houses, they now are required to sell to the tenants if the tenants desire to buy. As a consequence, although a very large num ber of people w ant rented hom es, the housing com m issions are n ot able to m eet everybody’s requirem ents.

Every housing commis­sion home sold to a tenant means that somebody has a home, probably perman­ently; but that is one less home available, for rent, and another house has to be built somewhere else in order to keep the balance b e t w e e n owner-occupied homes somewhere on the existing level.

The second difficulty is that it by no means follows that all the houses that are occupied at the time of the taking of a census are again available for occupancy at the time of the next census. Demolitions are taking place all the time. These demo­litions sometimes are under­taken by housing authorities to get rid of slums; in other cases they are undertaken to enable extensions of fac­

tories. This is constantly going on in th e inner suburbs of all the capital cities. There is no need for me to remind honorable members that houses o f very good habitable quality are being torn down to per­mit the erection of service stations.

We do not know until a census is taken how many houses have been demolish­ed to make way for indus­trial purposes, and how many houses have been de­molished because the State authorities have classed them as sub-standard and unfit for human habitation. 1 know that the figures given hy one. authority indicate that the number of rented houses in Sydney decreased by 12,000 between 1947 and 1954. The comparable figure

in Victoria was 11,000. Mr. M. R. Hill, in his book, “Housing Finance in Aus­tralia, 1945-1956V, statbs that between 1947 and 1954 90,000 houses which were rented had been 'sold for owner-occupancy.

It is necessary to see that in whatever agreements ope­rate between the Common­wealth and the States there is provision that a percent­age of houses for rent shall always be available to meet the needs of those who re­quire such houses.

I believe that when the next bill comes before the House a substantially in­creased sum should be made available to the States and t h e co-operative building societies for housing pur­poses.

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN COMMENTS ON

SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENTT he National Council of W om en of Victoria has carefully

studied the Governiment’s proposals for a new Departm ent of Social W elfare. T he fo llow ing extracts are from the Council’s report on the G overnm ent’s proposals.

Summary of Suggestionsand Comments:

1. We suggest it would be better to invite an expert either from the Home Office, Great Britain, or from the Children’s Bu­reau, Washington, D.C., to advise on the matter.

2. If this is not accepted then the suggestion is that Government should consider sending some­one overseas to obtain this advice. This has been done .when other Departments were over­hauled (e.g. Penal) and it seems never to have been done in the Child Welfare field.

3. I t is considered that there should be a separ­ate portfolio for Social Welfare.

4. The persons in charge of the three main Divis­ions, e.g. Family Wel­fare, Youth and Adult! Correction, should be given the name and sta­tus of Directors, (this was done in the Health Department) and the per­son who is appointed to the office of Director of Social Welfare should be given another title (as in the Health Department.) In fact we consider that the responsibilities of this position are so great that it might well be better handled by an authority (such as in Mental Hy­giene) with a Chairman and other members.

5. We, consider that before

legislation is drafted it will be necessary to de­fine more clearly than has been done in the Whatmore Report the functions of each Divis­ion. We think this would enable all the voluntary agencies working in this field to have a clearer idea of what is intended and would answer many of the criticisms and in­quiries made.

6. We feel it is desirable at this stage also to de­fine the powers and du­ties of the Head of each Division and also those of the Director.

7. We highly commend the setting up of the. Re­search and Statistical Di­vision and of the Train­ing Division.

8. Probation and Parole Division. We support the suggestion that the Children’s Court Proba­tion Service be transfer­red from the Law De­partment to this Division and highly commend the Government’s intention to improve this service. We record our apprecia­tion of the work that is being done by the Honor­ary Probation Officers.

9. Family Welfare Division.Some doubts have been expressed as to the suit­ability of this title, and it might be clearer if it were called the Child and Family Welfare Di­vision.

10. We feel a much clearer definition of the func

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tions of these Divisions should be given. This would answer the criti­cism of those who think this section has no new subject matter (except the inclusion of a Cent­ral Index) than is already in the Children’s Welfare and it would allay the fears of others who think that the work of the voluntary organizations and other departments already engaged in this preventive field will be overlooked, overlapped, or even taken over.

11. Before legislation i s drafted consider a t i o n should be. given to in- including provision for:

(a) The formulation of stan­dards to be observed in Institutions a n d th e granting of increased fi­nancial assistance t o those which raise their standards. Members have commented on the ab­sence of any provision for spiritual develop­ment in the Whatmore report.

(b) Setting up an advisory service for voluntary or­ganisations contemplat­ing erecting new or al­tering old buildings and make the granting of funds dependent on this advice being followed.

(c) Simplification o f th e cumbersome procedure for applications for fi­nancial assistance so that help may be available without delay.

Youth Division: A ma­jority of opinion feels that Youth Welfare should more properly be part of the Family Welfare. Division, rather than the Youth Divis­ion.

Youth Delinquecy: Some members consider the Mini­ster should not have power to transfer on recommenda­tion of the Parole Board, a person over 16 from a Youth Training Centre to a prison; but that only the Court should tr-'e such power. It is suggested that the Youth Parole Board should have a man and a woman on it for all cases. It is queried whether the Director of Social Welfare should be a member of this Board. Is it wise to have a Departmental Head a member of a Board of this nature?

November, 1959 “ N O W ” Page Eleven

Govt. Ignores Rent Rises' Effects

• from page

landlords. This new Act could weigh the scales against many tenants.

The biggest single factor that affects the well being of pensioners and low in­come families is high rent for sub-standard accommo­dation. Many hundreds of families are already living in rooms, sharing facilities and paying up to £9 for their miserable accommoda­tion.

Their numbers will be in­creased by this Act.

General P rosp erity :In supporting the Act,

Mr. Rylah produced statis­tics t o substantiate, h i s claims of geneiCl prosperity. These figures do, in fact, support such claims but they are all figures based on the misleading concept of “averages.” They do not apply to the below “aver­age” in terms of family size. They certainly do not apply to the 11,500 widow pen­sioners in Victoria, 5,000 of whom have dependent chil­dren. Nor do these figures in support of prosperity ap­ply to the 145,000 age and invalid pensioners in Vic­toria, more than half of

1 whom do not own their own homes. The tens of thous­ands of families with two or more children on in­comes of £14 or £15 are not represented by these fig­ures of average wages and average size families.

Finally the much quoted “C” series Index can be used to prove anything. The in­crease of only 10% in rents since 1939 referred to by the Chief Secretary is based on a sample of homes which has been acknowledged to bear little relationship to most rental accommodation.

The “C” Series Index covers a limited range of items and ignores the high pressure selling and the higher standard of “gadget- ry” which every family is now obliged to try and achieve. It is not a meas­ure of real increases in the real costs of living.

Mr. Rylah’s case for pros­perity is certainly applicable to the. majority of income earners in the country and if they are in a position to pay higher rents, there is no reason why they should not be obliged to do so. The Chief Secretary’s ar­gument about the “privil- edged class” do not, how­ever, apply to the “below

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average” in terms of income and it is these people who will suffer and whose situa­tion was not considered realistically by the Govern­ment.

Mr. Rylah asked “has any other class in the commun­ity been asked to bear a like burden to that imposed on landlords?” His answer was “it is clear that no such class exists.” He forgets the pensioner and the, large, low-income family whose living standards decline with each rent rise.

Younger Groups

Help Food For

Peace Campaign

Several auxiliary groups of younger people have re­cently been formed to work for the F.F.P.C.—noticeably in South Australia.

One group, calling itself (unofficially at any rate) the Beachport Girls, have sent a helpful donation as the result of a gift stall. The same group plan a dance for 21st. November and are optimistic of it being a well supported gathering.

MORE SUCH GROUPS NEEDED

There is surely no more urgent cause in the world than that the economically strong should help the un­der-developed countries ■— and it is specially fitting that the younger generation should be associated with this. The Food for Peace Campaign would welcome the formation of more such groups as those referred to above.I l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l , , , , , , , ! , ! ! , , , , ,

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