Susan Ryan (Dec’d)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Cricket cheats and Australian culture.

    The big question for Australian culture is not which of the three cheats is most remorseful, but why this bad behaviour by cricket heroes, once exposed, has apparently caused greater distress to Australians than any other cheating currently in the public domain.

    Banks cheating their customers is the subject of a current Royal Commission. The Australian Tax Office publicly warns against claiming unjustified concessions for holiday houses. Everyone is aware of cheating by insurance companies who try to refuse valid sickness and disability claims by policyholders. (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Homelessness, Australia’s disgrace ignored.

    The last few days have seen a media preoccupation with relentless attacks on a new federal Labor proposal to eliminate the payment of cash cheques to those who don’t need their dividend imputation credits because they pay no tax. The media has channelled expressions of shock and rage, and accusations of robbery, from Coalition politicians and bodies who represent well-off retirees. (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Ruddock and the religious freedom review.

    In commercial matters religious freedom needs no further protection. There is no case for extending exemptions from existing anti-discrimination measures to the commercial provision of facilities, catering, furniture or entertainment that may play a part in hospitality following a marriage. Such goods and services are not a legal part of the civil marriage contract and should not attract the religious freedom protections that apply to the conduct of the marriage ceremony. The commercial provision of services is legally separate from the Marriage Act and is covered by the 2013 amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act. 

    We need a Human Rights Act. Professor  Spencer Zifcak drafted a model Act ten years ago.See link below

    (This is a shortened version of Susan Ryan’s submission to the Ruddock review)  (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. A roof over their heads.

    The Annual Report for 2016 of the Women’s Housing Company demonstrates solutions to the terrible and growing situation of older women facing homelessness. These solutions however continue to elude policy makers, the media and business, whose failures to recognise the size of the problem and its costs to the public purse inflict great damage on the human rights of poorer older women. (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Skills retraining still more miss than hit.

    Like car manufacturers who, despite decades of notice, still left many workers stranded, NAB’s more sudden announcement underlines the fact that massive redundancies are not only a feature of “old” industries. (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Postcard from Ireland, a resilient democracy

    It is heartening to see Ireland, so recently condemned as an economic basket case with social attitudes belonging in the middle ages effectively renew and redirect its democracy (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Tent City, Martin Place.

    The Berejiklian government in NSW showed this last week that it could act fast.   To deal with the reported discomfort of the Premier, caused for months by a tent city of the homeless situated in Martin Place just opposite the Parliament, a new law was passed, peremptorily.  The Sydney Public Reserves (Public Safety) Act empowers NSW police to order people out of Martin Place.  There was no dallying.  Within a couple of days of this enactment, the embarrassing tent city was dismantled and its occupants cleared away. Is the Premier now free of discomfort? (more…)

  • Older women need housing too

    In the growing discourse around affordable housing, the federal and some state governments are edging forwards. Recently proposed changes have merit, but they may exclude poorer older women in need of housing.   (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN, OLIVER FRANKEL, JOHN MENADUE. Upcoming series on Making Housing Affordable.

    After Easter, Pearls and Irritations plans to publish a series ‘Making Housing Affordable‘ addressing key aspects of the housing crisis and recommending solutions, with contributions from a range of experts and other key stakeholders, including economists, planners, demographers, housing providers and policy makers.   (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Housing affordability requires immediate government action

    The 2016 Intergenerational Report from Treasury predicted that by 2050 the numbers of people in Australia over 65, currently nearly a quarter of the population, will have doubled. Average age expectancy will be over 95 for women and men. Where will those people be living?   (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Book review. The Dark Flood Rises: Margaret Drabble.

    As our sort of societies experience the demographic revolution, most of us are living much longer than ever before, in cultures that have not responded well to this increased longevity. We also find ourselves living in cultures that so far have failed to develop dignified and helpful practices and values for dealing with the inevitable.  
    (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Affordable housing and inclusionary zoning.

     

    There are recent signs that governments are belatedly starting to move on the urgent problems created by the lack of affordable housing. A variety of data sources shows that increasing numbers of people, especially older women, face homelessness. Based on 2011 census figures, among poorer single older women alone, we are looking at something like half a million who do not own a home and once they have left the workforce cannot afford private rentals.

    This problem does not only affect poor older Australians who have ended their working lives. Younger people, especially in our cities are locked out of home purchase. House prices rise continually, fuelled by extravagant tax concessions to private investors. Those excluded from home purchase must rent, adding pressure on the rental market. Without major changes in housing policy these renters will also face homelessness later in life. Homelessness in Australia is likely to reach unmanageable levels. (more…)

  • SUSAN RYAN. Older women – the new homeless.

     

    It is more than timely that focus on increasing inequality in Australia include recognition of a massive contributing factor: the lack of affordable housing, especially for older women.

    Several groups have been identified as severely disadvantaged by the lack of affordable housing: unemployed young people, single parent families, and low paid workers who need to live near their place of work. Older women, especially single older women need to be recognised as facing an increased risk of homelessness.

    How has this come about? (more…)