Catholic Diocese of Broome

There is much talk about investment in our country. It is a topic that fascinates the media and is bandied about by governments as though nothing else matters. Indeed, recently many foreign mining companies have been adding to the chorus lamenting the possibility of any new tax that may put at risk their investment in our land which they are increasingly eager to take away in ships!

In the Kimberley the investment mantra is trotted out frequently by politicians and wealthy investors alike. This is especially so when an opinion is aired that might interfere with their desire to develop anything from gas works to huge holes in the ground. Ensuring that our society is healthy and prosperous is not solely the province of the moneyed world. The need for the preservation of recreational and cultural space, the conservation of land and the environment, the obligation to ensure on-going biodiversity, and a holistic care for those who live and work in any given area are seriously important and integral parts of any plan proposing healthy development.

In a fast growing economy like our own in the Kimberley there is always the prospect that not all sectors of our society will benefit from the growth phenomenon. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that serious social damage has already occurred. In the rush to develop, which in some minds is equated with the maximization of profits, priorities alter, some people are left behind and the band of those left on the margins swells to bleak proportions. The wheels of industry and government turn, in these circumstances, with relentless force and often with unconsidered consequences.

Take, for instance, the disgraceful shortfall in public housing stocks and the obvious homelessness in regional towns and communities where overcrowding is a daily occurrence; the parlous state of health among a significant number of Kimberley citizens; the below average educational achievements in the region; the high unemployment rate and the disproportionately high number of Kimberley men in gaol. This state of affairs is the result of an economy based on social exclusion.

Social Inclusion on the other hand is affirmative action taken to create a change in the circumstances that lead to the alienation or disenfranchisement of certain people. It looks to the cause of social rupture that prevents individuals and groups from participating in the normal activities of the society in which they live. The cause of unemployment for one group, for instance, may be a matter of an insufficient basic skills level that might be corrected with the provision of a particular course delivered on location. In some cases it may also simply be that an absence of transport services or the lack of driving licences renders applicants unavailable for particular jobs. Sometimes poor health has excluded people from participating in the workforce. Suitable solutions may then be applied. Homelessness in one place may be a result of a transmigration of people from a community to a town due to social dysfunction in the remote area, or because there has been a sudden influx of people seeking employment opportunities in a major town. Again, homelessness may arise simply as a result of poor government decisions to quit public housing in favour of private providers whose market prices are beyond the capacity of the poor to pay. Social Inclusion targets the cause of the disruption and applies a remedy to enable the marginalized to engage again with their own society.

The Federal Government and some state governments have made much of a policy of operating out of a commitment to Social Inclusion. Results of this endeavour are yet to be seen. At the level of local government, strategies to cater for growth and development would fare better if they included Social Inclusion as a major component of all efforts in governance. Then perhaps local government too might be seen as being at the service of all people, investing in the long term future of the broader community, always including and never excluding.