2020 VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
MELBOURNE SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY INSTITUTE
The Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne, Australia, brings together researchers from different disciplines to help create a more sustainable society. It acts as an information portal for research at the University of Melbourne, and as a collaborative platform where researchers and communities can work together to affect positive change. This book can be freely accessed from MSSI’s website: www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au.
Cite as: Pearson, C.J. (editor) (2012). 2020: Vision for a Sustainable Society. Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne Published by Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute in 2012 Ground Floor Alice Hoy Building (Blg 162) Monash Road The University of Melbourne, Parkville Victoria 3010, Australia Text and copyright © Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the catalogue of the National Library of Australia at www.nla.gov.au 2020: Vision for a Sustainable Society, ISBN: 978-0-7340-4773-1 (pbk) Produced with Affirm Press www.affirmpress.com.au Cover and text design by Anne-Marie Reeves www.annemariereeves.com Illustrations on pages 228–231 by Michael Weldon www.michaelweldon.com Cover image © Brad Calkins | Dreamstime.com Proudly printed in Australia by BPA Print Group
Foreword
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he last two centuries have seen extraordinary improvements in the quality of human lives. Most people on earth today enjoy access to the necessities of life that was once available only to the elites. Most people enjoy longevity, health, education, information and opportunities to experience the variety of life on earth that was denied even to the rulers of yesteryear. The proportion of humanity living in absolute poverty remains daunting, but continues to fall decade by decade. The early 21st century has delivered an acceleration of the growth in living standards in the most populous developing countries and an historic lift in the trend of economic growth in the regions that had lagged behind, notably in Africa. These beneficent developments are accompanied by another reality. The improvements are not sustainable unless we make qualitative changes in the content of economic growth. The continuation of the current relationship between growth in the material standard of living and pressures on the natural environment will undermine economic growth, political
stability and the foundations of human achievement. The good news is that humanity has already discovered and begun to apply the knowledge that can reconcile continued improvements in the standard of living with reduction of pressures on the natural environment. The bad news is that the changes that are necessary to make high and rising standards of living sustainable are hard to achieve within our current political cultures and systems. Hard, but not impossible. That is a central message from this book, drawn out in Craig Pearson’s concluding chapter. This book introduces the reader to the many dimesions of sustainability, through wellqualified authors. Climate change is only one mechanism through which current patterns of economic growth threaten the natural systems on which our prosperity depend. It is simply the most urgent of the existential threats. Climate change is a special challenge for Australians. We are the most vulnerable of the
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developed countries to climate change. And we are the developed country with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions per person. There are roles for private ethical decisions as well as public policy choices in dealing with the climate change challenge. This book is released at the time of ‘Rio+20’, a conference in Brazil to review the relatively poor progress we have made towards sustainability in the past 20 years, and soon after the introduction of Australia’s first comprehensive policy response to the global challenge of climate change. Australia’s emissions trading scheme with an initially fixed price for emissions permits comes into effect on 1 July 2012. The new policy discourages activities that generate greenhouse gases by putting a price on emissions. The revenue raised by carbon pricing will be returned to households and businesses in ways that retain incentives to reduce emissions. Part of the revenue will be used to encourage production and use of goods and services that embody low emissions. The policy has been launched in controversy. Interests that stand to gain from the discrediting of the policy argue that it is unnecessary either because the case for global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the associated climate change has not been proven, or that the new policy places a disproportionate burden on Australians. The health of our civilisation requires us to bring scientific knowledge to account in public policy. Everyone who shares the knowledge that is the common heritage of humanity has
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a responsibility to explain the realities to others wherever and whenever they can. The argument that the new policy places a disproportionate burden on Australians can be answered by seeking honestly to understand what others are doing. The critics of Australian policy argue that the world’s two largest national emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the United States, are doing little or nothing to reduce emissions, so that it is either pointless or unnecessary for us to do so. China has advanced a long way towards achieving its target of reducing emissions as a proportion of economic output by 40 to 45 per cent between 2005 and 2020. It has done this by forcing the closure of emissions-intensive plants and processes that have exceptionally high levels of emissions per unit of output, by imposing high emissions standards on new plants and processes, by charging emissionsintensive activities higher electricity prices, by subsidising the introduction of low-emissions activities, and by new and higher taxes on fossil fuels. China has introduced trials of an emissions trading system in five major cities and two provinces. This adds up to a cost on business and the community that exceeds any burden placed on Australians by the new policies – bearing in mind that the revenue from Australian carbon pricing is returned to households and businesses. The US Government has advised the international community of its domestic policy target to reduce 2005 emissions by 17 per cent by 2020. President Barack Obama said
to the Australian Parliament that all countries should take seriously the targets that they had reported to the international community, and made it clear that the United States did so. United States efforts to reduce emissions are diffuse but far-reaching. They now include controls on emissions from electricity generators, announced in March 2012, effectively excluding any new coal-based power generation after the end of this year unless it embodies carbon capture and storage. From the beginning of next year they will include an emissions trading system in the most populous and economically largest state, California. The United States is making reasonable progress towards reaching its emissions reduction goals, with some actions imposing high costs on domestic households and businesses. Australia has now taken steps through which we can do our fair share in the international effort, at reasonable cost. It would be much harder and more costly to do our fair share without the policies that are soon to take effect. What Australians do over the next few years will have a significant influence on humanity’s prospects for handing on the benefits of modern civilisation to future generations. This book will help Australians to understand their part in the global effort for sustainability. Ross Garnaut University of Melbourne 15 April 2012
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Contents Foreword by Ross Garnaut Table of Contents
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Author Biographies
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Drivers
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1 Population Rebecca Kippen and Peter McDonald
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2 Equity Helen Sykes
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3 Consumption Craig Pearson
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4 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change David Karoly
27
5 Energy Peter Seligman
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People
47
6
Ethics Craig Prebble
48
7
Culture Audrey Yue and Rimi Khan
57
8
Awareness and Behaviour Angela Paladino
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Local Matters Matter Kate Auty
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10 Public Wisdom Tim van Gelder
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11 Mental Health Grant Blashki
86
12 Disease Peter Doherty
94
13 Corporate Sustainability Liza Maimone
104
14 Governance John Brumby
114
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Natural Resources
123
15 Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Rodney Keenan
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16 Water Hector Malano and Brian Davidson
132
17 Food Sunday McKay and Rebecca Ford
141
18 Zero Carbon Land-Use Chris Taylor and Adrian Whitehead
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Cities
161
19 Changing Cities Peter Newman and Carolyn Ingvarson
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20 Affordable Living Thomas Kvan and Justyna Karakiewicz
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21 Built Environment Pru Sanderson
177
22 Infrastructure Colin Duffield
184
23 Transport Monique Conheady
192
24 Adaptive Design Ray Green
200
25 Handling Disasters Alan March
210
Outcomes
221
26 Twenty Actions Craig Pearson
222
Further Reading
234
Index
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02 Equity Helen Sykes
E
quity is the concern for fairness and social justice for all members of society, and is shaped by factors including law, institutions, policies and prevailing cultures. Real and perceived inequity influences the sustainability of society, which for humans depends on mutually supportive and interrelated policies and action. A sustainable society must provide services, jobs, education, affordable housing, amenities and natural environments for the wellbeing of people. These provide the foundation on which people can build their lives and make longterm plans. Recent research has also shown that more equal societies provide many benefits to their members. Epidemiologists Wilkinson and Pickett, in their book The Spirit Level, show that when people in the same socio-economic group are compared across wealthy countries, those in more equal societies, whether they are rich or poor, do better. Greater equality makes most difference to the least well off, but still provides benefits for the well off. This chapter is particularly concerned with wealth, health and wellbeing. It draws on a number of Australian examples where equity, justice and fairness for vulnerable people have
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fallen short for a myriad reasons that can, and should for the sake of a sustainable society, be rectified.
Wealth Distribution The gap in wealth in Australia is large and growing. The wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians own 61 per cent of the country’s wealth and the poorest 20 per cent own 1 per cent. According to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) over 2.2 million people in Australia live in poverty. Three quarters of these people live in households where no one has paid work. A quarter of single adults and around 12 per cent of children in Australia are living in poverty. The perception of wealth distribution in Australia can also differ from the reality. In May 2011 the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Equity
Low pay and poverty (mid 2000s) 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%
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Australia is among those developed economies that have highest inequality and disadvantage, expressed as ‘low pay’. Source: OECD (2008). Note: ‘Low pay’ refers to the percentage of full-time workers on wages less than 2/3 of the median wage. ‘Poverty’ refers to the percentage of all people living on less than half median equivalent household disposable income.
(ACTU) released research on Australians’ perceptions on wealth inequality, ‘Australian Attitudes Towards Wealth Inequality and the Minimum Wage’ by Neal, Govan, Norton and Ariely. It found that Australians tend to ‘dramatically underestimate the degree of wealth inequality within their society and understate the wealth of the richest Australians and even more dramatically overstate the wealth of the poorest Australians’. The research also suggests that most people are in favour of living in a more equal society and share the Australian value of concern for wealth inequality. The Australian adult minimum wage in May 2011 was ‘$15 an hour, or $570 a week, or $29,640 a year’. This is the reality for 1.3 million people earning minimum wages.
Again the perception varies from the reality. In general the respondents in the ACTUfunded research believed the adult minimum wage was $16.80 per hour. However, even with this overestimation, the respondents strongly supported increasing the minimum wage.
Equality for Women There is significant wealth inequity for Australian women, which is underpinned by widespread discrimination based on gender. Until 1966, women working in the federal public service had to resign when they married and, historically, females have had lower wages, less access to paid employment, restricted educational opportunities and unequal access to finance and property ownership. Women
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Defining poverty Poverty is often measured using ‘poverty lines’. Poverty lines measure ‘income poverty’, the number of people living beneath an unacceptably low income level. The Henderson poverty line, established during the Henderson inquiry into poverty in the 1970s, is still often quoted as the poverty line in Australia. However, other measures have been used, including, more recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) poverty line, set at 50 per cent of the median disposable income for all Australian households; and the poverty line used by the European Union and the UK, set at less than 60 per cent of median income. Source: ACCOSS Poverty Report, October 2011 Update.
have also shouldered a disproportionate share of family care, which has reduced their workforce participation. The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) highlights the status of gender participation and pay inequality in the workplace as shown in the box below. Lower pay for women is not being addressed, and contributes to ongoing, in fact rising, inequity. The Gini coefficient, an internationally used metric of national income spread, that varies between zero and one was around 0.27 in 1981–82 and worsened to 0.328 in 2009–10. If everyone had exactly the same income then the coefficient would be zero (perfect equality). With regulation and legislation there is improvement on the horizon in some sectors,
even if it is slow. The Australian Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 was an interesting test case. In 2011, the federal industrial tribunal, Fair Work Australia, upheld a pay equity claim by Australian unions, who argued that community services workers are paid less largely because most of them are women. Fair Work Australia found that there is not equal remuneration for male and female workers in community services in comparison with state and local government employees who perform work of similar value. In an historic pay equity decision in early 2012, Fair Work Australia awarded pay rises of between 23 and 45 per cent to around 150,000 of Australia’s lowest paid workers, the vast majority of
Gender participation and pay in the workforce • Women make up 45.6 per cent of the total labor force • Women constitute 70.4 per cent of all part-time employees and 35 per cent of all full-time employees • On average, women working full-time earn 17.2 per cent less than men working full-time • Female graduates earn $2000 per annum less than male graduates on entering the workforce • Less than 40 per cent of EOWA reporting organisations said they conducted an annual gender pay equity analysis in 2010
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Equity
whom are women and work in what are often described ‘caring’ jobs, including working with people with disabilities, counselling families in crisis, running homeless shelters and working with victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. Another recent change that has assisted women’s workforce participation is the new Paid Parental Leave scheme. It is an entitlement for working parents of children born or adopted from 1 January 2011. Eligible working parents can receive 18 weeks of government-funded parental leave pay at the rate of the national minimum wage, which is currently $589.40 a week before tax.
Indigenous Health Lack of adequate income, education, food, housing and sanitation, and unequal access to primary health-care, are linked to systemic and avoidable discrimination and contribute to inequity in the health of Indigenous people. A key finding of the ‘Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2011’ report is that Indigenous young people aged 12–24 years are ‘…far more likely to be disadvantaged across a broad range of health, community and socioeconomic indicators compared with non-Indigenous young people’. The table to the right illustrates their disadvantage. And the picture in remote and very remote areas of
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Australia, where approximately 98 per cent of the population is Indigenous, looks worse still. ‘Pathways to Suicide’ (Figure 1) illustrates Indigenous young people’s vulnerability to mental health issues including depression, anxiety, excessive aggression, inability to control anger, violent behaviour and suicide.
Mental Health and Young Asylum Seekers Inequity during adolescent years, defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as 10 to 19 years, has long-term consequences. According to Professor Sawyer, Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, the causes of ill-health in this group of young people are more commonly psychosocial than biological and ‘tend to reflect unhealthy patterns of risk behaviours and mental disorders’. Depression and anxiety are common and rising disorders in young people. The Australian Federal Government’s policy of mandatory immigration detention, the practice of compulsorily detaining or imprisoning people who are considered to be illegal immigrants or unauthorised arrivals and seeking political asylum in Australia, began in 1992 and continues to date. As of February 2011 there were 1027 children under 18 being held in mandatory detention. The risk of physical and mental illness for hundreds of people already recognised as refugees and still being held in Australian detention for long periods of time as they wait for security clearances is well documented. Disturbingly, one of the key concerns raised
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Extent of disadvantage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth Compared with their non-Indigenous counterparts, Indigenous young people are: • t wice as likely to die from all causes, including six times as likely to die from assault and four times as likely from suicide • ten times as likely to have notifications for sexually transmissible infections and six times as likely for hepatitis • six times as likely to be teenage mothers • six to seven times as likely to be in the child protection system • 15 times as likely to be under juvenile justice supervision or in prison • t wice as likely to be unemployed or on income support • three times as likely to live in overcrowded housing • three times as likely to be daily smokers. Source: AIHW 2011. Young Australians: Their Health and Wellbeing 2011. Cat. no. PHE 140. Canberra: AIHW
during the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Australia’s human rights record in January 2011 was Australia’s system of indefinite and mandatory immigration detention. The Australian Human Rights Commission believes that asylum seekers, people who are seeking international protection but whose claim for refugee status has not yet been determined, should only be held in immigration detention if ‘there is a risk that justifies detaining them’. Otherwise they should be allowed to live in the community while their refugee claims are being processed. Irrespective
Equity
Crime & violence
Absence of employment & meaningful role Harmful drug & alcohol use
Availability of harmful drugs
Non-supportive school environment (exposure to bullying/racism) Adverse parenting & exposure to violence Genetic factors
Depression
Low selfesteem
Affiliation with deviant peers School & learning difficulties
Self-regulation of emotion, attention & social interaction
Suicidal behaviour
Increasing psychosocial difficulties
Acute stress/ significant loss
Negative thinking patterns
Peer problems Poor problem solving skills
Early neurological (brain) development
Low SES, maternal Infections, drug use & exposure to neurotoxins
Diet & nutrition
Time Figure 1. Pathways to Alcohol, Depression, Crime and Suicide. Source: New directions in Australian suicide prevention, by S R Silburn, 2003, keynote address to the first Asia-Pacific Injury Prevention Conference, Perth.
of how or where asylum seekers and refugees arrive, whether with or without a visa, the Australian Government has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their human rights are respected and protected while they are in Australian sovereign territory. Of particular concern here is the detention of unaccompanied minors. Although the Australian High Court has accepted that children suffer psychological harm in detention, in January 2011 it decided that their detention was legal, so the court had no alternative but to dismiss releasing refugee children to the community.
Climate Change and Health The impact of climate change and associated policy responses and action on vulnerable and disadvantaged people will be inequitable and disproportionate, that is, those individuals least able to manage will be most affected. Health impacts will be unevenly distributed within Australia and there will be long term inequities for poor and vulnerable people, while those who are financially well off will have the resources to adapt. Thus, unless specific attention and resources are directed to the likely impacts of climate change on poorer
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communities, we will unwittingly shift to a more unequal society, with the likely longterm consequences of increased unhappiness, unemployment, ill-health and crime, as described by Wilkinson and Pickett. Particular areas where the health of the Australian population will most likely suffer from climate change include: a sharp rise in deaths from heat waves, especially in elderly people with underlying health issues; an increase in mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria, Ross River fever and dengue fever; and economic hardship, social dislocation and mental illness in rural areas as a result of flood, drought and other issues such as rising fuel and food prices. Indigenous Australians living in remote communities who are exposed to extreme climatic and environmental changes, poor hygiene and shortages of clean water, will suffer more diarrheal diseases and changes in various mosquito-borne infections. Supplies of traditional foods will also be affected by climate change and it could be easier for some ‘tropical’ infectious diseases not previously present to enter Australia. An example of climate impacts having greatest impact on those least able to cope are the catastrophic flash flooding in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley on 10 January 2011. Twentytwo vulnerable people, living in flood-prone areas, lost their lives.
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ACTIONS FOR 2020 Inequity exists in Australia and has extensive impacts. These include key measures or elements of a sustainable society, such as widespread satisfaction, employment, low crime and low incidence of mental health problems. We need to respect, be guided by and adhere to Australia’s human rights principles and obligations, and maintain our moral compass. Public policy should not be dominated by vested interests. Celebrating situations where inequity is being effectively addressed is also important. History teaches us that in our quest for a sustainable society we need to be vigilant about the damage done by inequity in all spheres of life. To now move from the general to recommendations for specific actions, I prioritise: • A study to identify the Indigenous-owned land in Australia that will be seriously affected by climate change and to maintain updated records of such places. This would contribute to ‘climate-proofing’ our most disadvantaged communities who are most vulnerable to impacts they are unlikely to avoid; and • Universal affordable childcare designed around child rearing that supports women and men in their dual parenting and employment roles. The action for government is to invest in means-tested childcare services for all Australians to enable low-income families, most often women, to participate in education and the workforce.
Further Reading Equity Australian Council of Social Services (2011). ‘Indicators of Inequality Factsheet’. http://acoss.org.au/images/uploads/ ACOSS_Indicators_of_Inequality_Factsheet_April_2011.pdf Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2011). Young Australians: their health and wellbeing 2011. Cat. no. PHE 140. Canberra. http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737419261 Chesters, J., Western, J. (2010). ‘Evidence and Perception of Inequality in Australia’, ANU, CEPR Discussion Paper No 635. http://cepr.anu.edu.au/pdf/DP635.pdf Neal, D., Norton, M., Ariely, D. (2011). ‘Australian Attitudes Towards Wealth Inequality and the Minimum Wage’, Empirica Research, Melbourne. http://www.actu.org.au/Images/Dynamic/attachments/7282/ACTU-ReportInequality-and-Minimum-%20Wage.pdf Productivity Commission (2011). ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indications 2011’, Steering Committee or the Review of Government Service Provision. Canberra. http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/reports/indigenous/keyindicators-2011 Steffen, W. (2011). ‘The Critical Decade’, Climate Commission, Canberra. http://climatecommission.gov.au/topics/ the-critical-decade/ Sykes, H. eds. (2011). Health, Future Leaders, Melbourne. http://www.futureleaders.com.au/ebooks/health_ebook.php Wild, R., Anderson, P. (2007). Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle ‘Little Children are Sacred’, Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse. http://www. inquirysaac.nt.gov.au/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf Wilkinson, R., Pickett, K. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Penguin, London. http:// www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/publications/the-spirit-level