27 February 2007

Why postcoding disadvantage is arse

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has swallowed hook line and sinker of a particularly stupid report by Tony Vinson on the distribution of disadvantage.

Particularly in the ACT context the report shows that people in public housing have less going for them, in which case the disadvantage pre-dates distribution. Using this flawed analysis and then shoehorning it onto postcodes alarming findings can be made.

“The survey found the ACT’s most disadvantaged suburbs following Narrabundah and The Causeway were Kingston, Fyshwick, Majura, Pialligo, Symonston, Braddon, Campbell, Reid, Turner, and Oaks Estate.

So the most advantaged suburbs with the highest numbers of public housing residences are a problem that needs to be addressed??

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hmmm food for thought there woody. I was mearly quoting some figures i found, and not trying to imply that everyone there owns their own home. I just think that whoever did the research and survey didnt do a very good job.

Woody Mann-Caruso9:00 am 01 Mar 07

Disadvantaged my arse.

Yeah, because everybody who lives in Narrabundah owns their own house, and reaps the benefit of the property boom. Did you think that maybe they’re renting and find it a real struggle to keep up with spiralling rents?

Nobody is saying that everybody in Kingston, or Narrabundah, or wherever is disadvantaged. They’re saying that there are larger clusters of disadvantaged people there than in other suburbs / collection areas. Living next door to somebody rich doesn’t change the fact that you’re on income support.

get off their arse and do something about it

Ah, a graduate of the “if I did it, everybody can and must do it” school. I know somebody from a working class background with degrees in medicine and law, and who earns six figures working a couple of hours a week. He did it – why haven’t you?

la mente torbida – Nope didn’t learn that.

I did however learn that people should stop whinging about how disadvantaged they are and actually get off their arse and do something about it.

Narrabundah has some really scungy parts though – tiny little streets with tiny houses really close together on tiny blocks and lots of dead cars and couches on the front naturestrips. I’d say a lot of that is govie housing, and is the disadvantaged area, rather than the investor area with nicer houses on bigger blocks that are all being done up.

I read somewhere recently that Narrabundah is Canberras best suburb to invest in in terms of market value on the property. Some like at least 13.5% increase every year for the last ten years. Disadvantaged my arse.

la mente torbida9:35 am 28 Feb 07

“I had no family support and still managed a uni degree while working two jobs.”

Good for you! Did you learn during your degree not to broadly extrapolate from small samples?

It might be difficult, but not impossible.

I had no family support and still managed a uni degree while working two jobs.

People should stop expecting hand outs and take responsibility for their own lives.

I didn’t say no single parent can ever work.

But for some people with no family support, who would only earn very low income, it is pretty difficult.

Actually this link displays census collection districts and hence a much finer level of granularity.

Woody Mann-Caruso6:39 pm 27 Feb 07

Alright, Woodster, so it’s possible for people to rent 100.99% of government-owned dwellings then

No, and the legend doesn’t suggest that it is. None of the ranges have significant decimal places, and so you shouldn’t add them.

Seepi – There is absolutely no reason a single parent can’t get a job.
Have been in that situation myself.

As well as pensioners there are also single parents with very young children who can’t work, people with disabilities nad illnesses and of course the real nutters. So it isn’t all druggies cloggin up the housing.

ps – lots of the Ainslie ones are oldies who have been there since they came to Canberra decades and decades ago. They’re a bit past working now.

I have heard Ainslie is still 50% public housing.

‘Disadvantaged’ should read as ‘Lazy’. In the current economic climate there is no reason not to have a job (apart from Medical reasons). How many people in Government housing actually need it, and how many are just junkie scum who dont want to get a job.

Interesting to see that most of Tuggeranong counts as disadvantaged.

Its not all public housing. I’m pretty sure there was a higher percentage of public housing properties as a total of all dwellings in ainslie than any other canberra suburb a couple of years ago when i still extracted all the stats for Housing ACT. It was something like 29%

Coming to think about that – does this stat include people paying ‘market rent’ instead of ‘normal rent’ on account of they are freeloaders, and to what error bias would that skew the survey field ? (maybe +/- .99% ???)

Maybe Rolands boss took on a boarder and passed the profits onto the Government while she was still freeloading ?

Alright, Woodster, so it’s possible for people to rent 100.99% of government-owned dwellings then?

Woody Mann-Caruso4:18 pm 27 Feb 07

It seems it’s possible for people to rent 101% of government-owned dwellings.

The legend should be read as “from 61% to less than 101%”. It’s why 8%, 25%, 41% and 61% are listed as both the tops and bottoms of ranges.

West_Kambah_4eva3:53 pm 27 Feb 07

Where are all the druggie flats in Narrabundah? I am yet to see them. Unless they look fine from the outside and are full of druggie surprises…

The key to that map is a bit puzzling.

It seems it’s possible for people to rent 101% of government-owned dwellings.

There are lies, damned lies and … ABS statistics.

um- how many people live in Pialligo? One or two?

nice 1 ash

A thematic map of government owned rental dwellings in Canberra:


Link

Interestingly, those are common Defence Force suburbs as well.

I think the skewed stats would have more to do with a majority of welath in the ACT being vested in new retirees managed funds, and the fact that there would be alot of rental accomodation in the inner city.

Plus, the report was commisioned by jesuits, and history has already shown that they are famous are interprteing things differently to the rest of literate society.

…without actually improving the situation for the “disadvantaged” people themselves, of course. Hence the reason that this sort of stat is basically crap.

If they’d knock down all the public housing in Braddon and Reid it would improve the stats there immensely.

these reports do have the functionality to burrow down a few levels to get slightly more meaningful info, however you do need to pony up extra cash for that mash-up, so pay more stamp duty to ther ACT govt or come up with a better statistical analysis in the interim.

Wait, there’s people living in Fyshwick?
Also, I’d never even heard of (The) Causeway before now – interesting bit of Canberra’s history there. You learn something every day.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt10:36 am 27 Feb 07

All this really does is demonstrate that Canberra is not representative of the wider Australian society. Again.

We live in the most fortunate, rich and opportunity filled city in the country. On average, of course!

While the ACT is a bit unusual in that there is, with a few notable exceptions, generally speaking a mixture of social/financial (dis)advantage across the suburbs, in most other places in Aust the postcode analysis is relevant and can help with drawing attention to where $$ focus goes. Particularly at this time, when federal parliamentarians are all looking to feather their own nests to retain their seats, it might prick a few consciences.

what is disadvantage ?

taken a ride down a jakarta street lately ?

It’s a classic scale issue.

At a national level, the exact physical location of the postcode is unimportant, and Canberra’s public housing policies don’t rate a mention. They’re local-scale issues.

At a national scale, the more interesting thing for public policy is:
The major characteristics of the ACT’s most disadvantaged postcodes included rental stress, home purchase stress, lack of Year 12 completions, limited internet access, low work skills and qualifications, criminal convictions and domestic violence.

A cynic, with no eye to community or caring about people, could take this to mean that Charnwood and Kambah have been knocked off their ‘disadvantage’ perch.

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