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Home » 2007 » #721 » Comment & Analysis » Life in a two-tier society

Barry Healy, Perth

Citing research by the WA Council of Social Service, Truman said that rent had skyrocketed in the last year. “In 2003, 4.8% of Perth rental accommodation was vacant, meaning you could get a house at a reasonable rent. But not today; now only 0.8% of rental accommodation is vacant”, she said.

Between June last year and June this year, the average rent for a three-bedroom home in Mount Hawthorn rose from $260 per week to $600. “It is the same all over the city”, Truman said. “Even in Midland, rents for three-bedroom houses have gone up by $70 a week in the last year.”

Truman listed basic food items that have also increased in price in the last year: frozen chicken has increased by 14%, white bread by 15%, milk by 6% and eggs by 22%. Even baked beans have gone up, by 4%.

“If you can’t afford to eat you won’t need to go to the toilet”, Truman said. “Just as well, because toilet paper has gone up by 26%.”

Fuel Watch figures from the WA government show that the cost of keeping a car on the road continues to rise. “Food, housing and transport are the three major cost items for medium-to-low income families”, Truman explained. “But how can they survive if they are pushed out to the urban fringe like Armadale, where rents have only gone up by $28 in the last year, or Rockingham, where they went up by $57.” Because of this, women and children make up the majority of homeless people in Perth, she added.

“That’s what I mean by a two-tier society. People in WA living the fly in/fly out, highly paid lifestyle are living right next door to people who are suffering terribly. The Socialist Alliance knows about these things because our members are people on the receiving end of it all.”

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