Law and Poverty: Report of Commission of Inquiry into Poverty
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X7800900105 |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Author | McGarvie |
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Comment |
COMMENT
LAW AND POVERTY:
REPORT
OF
COMMISSION
OF
INQUIRY INTO,
POVERTY
TlIE
HONOURABLE
MR
JUSTICE
MCGARVIE
*
This Report, the responsibility of Professor Ronald Sackville, pre-
sented to Prime Minister Whitlam in October 1975,
is
one of great
significance to the community, the law and lawyers. There
is
much
that
is
new in its description of poverty, its methods
of
investigation
and in the means which it sees as enabling citizens to extricate them-
selves from the deprivations of poverty. Its practical recommendations
are grounded upon aknowledge of history and the present law and
upon information as to the behaviour of the community and its citizens
made available by
other
intellectual disciplines beside the law.
Four
essential premises underly the report. First that the concept of
poverty extends much wider
than
the inability to obtain the basic
necessities of life. Second,
that
inequalities firmly entrenched in
our
social structure operate to perpetuate poverty. Third,
that
the law and
lawyers are capable of providing important impetus to change the
conditions that produce poverty. Fourth,
that
the elimination of
poverty depends upon poor people having effective power to influence
decisions which intimately affect their lives.
The Report commences with the statement that:
If
poverty in Australia
is
to be eliminated the first requirement
is
that all Australians should be entitled to receive
an
adequate and
guaranteed income.
It
adds
that
the work of the Commission has shown that:
...the pattern of deprivation associated with poverty goes far
beyond the inability to pay for decent food, housing, medical care
and
other
basic needs.
Poor
people are denied educational and
employment opportunities taken for granted by other members of
the community. They are vulnerable to misfortune, not having
the material
or
social resources to protect themselves against
emergencies such as unemployment and illness which constantly
threaten. They are subjected to exploitation in the market-place.
They suffer many indignities, not the least of which
is
being
"at
the mercy of the expectations and judgment of those in authority".
They lack the power to influence decisions and processes that
affect their daily lives.1
Lawyers have not always favoured the poor having power to influence
decisions of importance to them. While conceding
that
in principle a
poor person should have avote in electing members of Parliament
"to
*Judge
of
the Supreme Court
of
Victoria.
1The Report
of
Commission
of
Inquiry into Poverty at page
1.
This report will
hereinafter be referred to
as
the "Report".
97
98
Federal
Law
Review
[VOLUME
91
whose charge
is
committed the disposal of his property, his liberty,
and~
his life", Blackstone justified the property qualification of eighteenthl
century Britain. The poor, he said, were in
so
mean asituation that!
they were esteemed to have no will of their own.
If
these persons had votes, they would be tempted to dispose of
them under some undue influence
or
other.2
The Report recognizes that unless the poor share in the exercise of
power within the community their interests are likely to be insufficiently
protected in both the construction and operation of community insti-
tutions. This Second Main Report applies the principle stated in the
preface to all reports contained in the First Main Report of the
Commission: .
Redistribution of income and services should also be accompanied
by other measures to increase the capacity of poor people to
exercise power, thus enabling them to take an effective
part
in
decision-making processes along with other sections of the com-
munity. Socia-economic status, power and social norms are
so
closely interrelated that significant change in one area must be
accompanied by changes in the others.3
The Report on Law and Poverty considers areas where the law
or
its operation contributes to deprivations inherent in poverty. There
is
agrowing recognition throughout the legal profession of the important
need to overcome the problems of these areas.
For
example the Under-
privileged and the Law Committee, established by the Law Council of
Australia in 1975
is
now working on vagrancy and consorting laws, I
prisoners' rights, post-arrival programs for migrants and an adminis- ,
trative law handbook.
Much of the law which has asignificant impact on those in poverty
also affects many others. There are only afew areas of law
that
can
accurately be treated as law relating exclusively to poverty. The Report
concentrates on areas where the law or its operation has a substantial
influence on the lives of the poor. This seems avalid approach.
An
area
may be relevant because it affects the practicability of access by the
poor to legal services.
It
may be relevant because asection of substan-
tive la\v applies in practice to many poor people, as with landlord and
tenant law, consumer credit law, debt enforcement law, social security
law
or
the processes of the criminal law. The Report considers the
law impinging on disadvantaged classes which include large proportions
of poor people. The classes studied are migrants, homeless people,
Aboriginals and children.
The Report, while recomnlending sweeping structural changes, takes
Australian society basically as it
is,
and does not recommend funda-
mental change in community organisation.
It
recognizes that the
elimination of poverty requires economic and social changes as well as
legal changes.
It
accepts that the elimination of poverty will be costly
but suggests that the changes to the law and its operation will represent
arelatively small part of the expense.
2Jones (ed.), The Sovereignty
of
the
Law
(1973) 73-74.
3Reproduced in Report, p. viii.
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