Breadth of Social Disadvantage in the ACT

Grammar.

Kingstons got the causeway and some very nice flats opposite the shops so evens out overall.

The Kingston census region doesn’t actually include Kingston itself. It is a very small area that takes in the Glassworks and Bus Depot markets, and the area that used the be the government printing office, except for the bit that has the new foreshore development. It doesn’t include the Causeway. I don’t know where they found 55 people living in that area to even survey.

The Crikey report was a very good example of how to use statistics poorly. The least disadvantaged area in Victoria was Corio, near Geelong. That area consists of a large oil refinery, a fertilizer factory and some abandoned factories, oh and also Geelong Grammer.

but to class it alongside the rough ‘burbs of western sydney and Indigenous communities in QLD, SA, NT and WA is a bit of an eye opener.
Yeah…but it’s not really classed alongside them in any meaningful way. It’s not unlike picking the poorest street in, say, Forrest (or whatever is the richest suburb you can think of) and saying it’s classed alongside the poorest street in some dirt poor indigenous community. Not really that much of an eye-opener.

It is certainly a result which does not tally with the average house price in Turner these days!!

Apart from the jolly bunch in the Macleay St flats, there are also quite a few student share households in the area as well, which typically record household incomes in the bottom 20 per cent but which are not really disadvantaged in any long-term way.

The link to the ABS data cubes: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyReleaseDate/8298F6AB51491A7CCA2570A400770380?OpenDocument

It’s not just a measure of rich vs poor suburbs.

Crikey drew on ABS Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas data released in mid-feb examining socio-economic indicators from the 06 census. They examined average wage, rates of full time employment and levels of unemployment, levels of education.

Living in Turner myself, it’s Canberra’s second smallest suburb (second to Reid). Could be possible that the number of those in the govy flats rates as a large percentile of the rest of the Suburb? Or possibly that Crikey were looking at the percentile of high density housing as an indicator?

How does Turner possibly rate as a disadvantaged area? Sure Turner has Northbourne flats and Havelock house but that’s it -Kingstons got the causeway and some very nice flats opposite the shops so evens out overall.