The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has released its Report on Performance 2015, which summarises Australian governments’ joint performance against agreed benchmarks and indicators.
This report noted some improvements in waiting times for emergency hospital care, life expectancy, and work towards halving the mortality rate for indigenous children. However, there are also key areas where Australia’s governments are failing, in particularly around housing affordability, education and skills, and the disabled (see below table extract).
With regards to housing affordability, the COAG report notes that low income rental affordability and homelessness has worsened:
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The objective of the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) is ’…that all Australians have access to affordable, safe and sustainable housing that contributes to social and economic participation’…
Benchmark| From 2007–08 to 2015–16, a 10% reduction nationally in the proportion of low income renter households in rental stress…
Nationally, there is no evidence that progress has been made in meeting the benchmark. According to ABS Survey of Income and Housing data, the national rate of rental stress has increased among low-income renter households from 35.4 per cent in 2007-08 to 40.7 per cent in 2011-12…
Benchmark| From 2006 to 2013, a 7% reduction nationally in the number of homeless Australians…
The number of homeless persons rose from just under 90,000 in 2006 to over 105,000 in 2011, a 17.3 per cent increase. Data to assess whether this benchmark has been achieved will not be available until the next Census, but it seems unlikely. The number of homeless Australians increased, even accounting for population increase. For every 10,000 persons that were counted in Australia, there were 48.9 persons homeless on Census night in 2011 compared to 45.2 persons per 10,000 on Census night in 2006—an increase of 8 per cent…
With respect to skills and workforce development, the COAG report notes that outcomes have worsened for VET graduates and Australia’s youth:
Indicator| Proportion of VET graduates with improved employment status after training…
Nationally, between 2008 and 2014 there was a 7.5 percentage point decrease in the proportion of VET graduates aged 20-64 years with improved employment circumstances after training. There were significant decreases in NSW, Vic, Qld and SA…
Indicator| The proportion of young people participating in post-school education, training or employment…
Nationally, the proportion of young people fully engaged in work or study fell between 2006 and 2011 Censuses. In 2011, more than a quarter of young people were not fully engaged. The proportion in full-time study rose, but there were falls in full-time work. More recent data from the ABS Survey of Education and Work shows that the proportion of young people fully engaged in work or study fell between 2012 and 2014…
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
