Patch-up or Prevention? A Call for Action on Poverty in Metropolitan Adelaide

ATSIC first prepared this booklet as a submission to the Poverty Inquiry conducted in late 2002 and early 2003 by the Social Development Committee of the Parliament of South Australia.

The terms of reference of the Inquiry were to investigate and report on the issue of poverty and its causes in Adelaide's disadvantaged regions, and in particular - 1. Intergenerational poverty and unemployment; and 2. Education and training opportunities in these regions.

This submission provides evidence that at least a third of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in metropolitan Adelaide experience chronic poverty relative to Australian average standards of living. Many suffer `absolute', or subsistence, poverty - not enough income or goods to secure minimum levels of food, clothing and shelter.