By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A REPORT confirming Corio as an entrenched area of disadvantage demonstrates that governments must adopt new ways of tackling the issue, according to the region’s councils alliance body.
G21 chief Elaine Carbines said the report revealed nothing new about the level of disadvantage in the 3214 postcode.
“Lots of money has been invested over the years and the indicators have gone backwards where the levels of employment and education are concerned,” Ms Carbines said.
“This report underscores what we’ve been saying to government over the last year.
“All previous efforts have made no difference. In fact, if you track disadvantage over the last two Census reports it has worsened.”
Corio was listed as the third most disadvantaged suburb in Victoria, along with Broadmeadows, Doveton, Frankston North, Maryborough and Morwell.
The joint Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia report showed little achievement over the past 16 years in alleviating difficulties in the most problem-plagued areas of Australia.
Report author Professor Tony Vinson said residents of the areas lacked “a fair go“ and urgent action was needed to break the cycle.
“I’ve been looking at communities for 40 years and some of the areas that were disadvantaged then are disadvantaged heavily now.“
Prof Vinson said politicians had a misconception that generational change could be achieved inside a political term of three years.
“I would think it would be an enormous breakthrough for this society if it could take one heavily disadvantaged area in each state and territory, work with the local people for say seven or eight years and if we turn those communities around that would be the first time.“
Ms Carbines said the report underscored the need for Geelong’s G21 Region Opportunities for Work (GROW) project to find jobs for residents of “our most-disadvantaged areas”.
“The most critical intervention is having a job. We want to change the welfare model that’s used to address disadvantage by using an economic approach with training and employment programs.”
