During Anti-poverty Week, Acting WA Equal Opportunity Commissioner Allan Macdonald has called for service providers to address systemic discrimination to help break the poverty cycle that exists in some Western Australian communities.
He said organisations were sometimes unaware their policies and practices made it difficult for sections of the community to access their goods and services, which often exacerbated the disadvantage and poverty in those communities.
“Service providers often need to re-think their policies and practises in order to make it easier for disadvantaged communities to access the services they have to offer,” Mr Macdonald said.
He said this was a win-win situation because it helped break-down cycles of poverty in the community and helped organisations provide greater customer service and therefore enlarge the client base.
He said an excellent example of addressing systemic discrimination in service delivery was the State Government introduction of mobile licensing services for remote communities.
“The Department of Transport could see those living in remote communities already locked into cycles of poverty were incurring fines for lapsed driver licences because licensing centres were too far for them to access.
“To alleviate the problem the department introduced a range of initiatives, including attending a licensing stall at scheduled community open days to make it easier for people in these communities to renew their driver licences,” Mr Macdonald said.
He said although the WA State Government had been working very hard to address systemic discrimination in its service delivery through the Substantive Equality program, Mr Macdonald called for an assessment of service delivery policies and practises across all sectors to have a greater impact on poverty cycles.
“When cycles of poverty are entrenched in a community it impacts on everyone.
“Thinking differently in order to offer an equitable service to everyone will help make WA a more inclusive, prosperous state,” he said.
