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Human rights issues for rural families

Address by Chris Sidoti, Human Rights Commissioner to the Family Support Services Association of NSW Annual Conference, Bathurst, 22 July 1998

Families, and those who support them, play a vital role in the protection of human rights. Accordingly, I am very pleased to address this conference, and I commend all of you for your work in preserving and strengthening families.

I would like this morning to talk about some human rights issues and challenges facing families in rural Australia. I would also like to outline some work the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is currently doing to respond to these challenges.

Some of my comments will be of a critical nature as I am especially concerned about the lack of attention given to the needs of rural families. People like you in the family support sector do a great job under very trying circumstances. But their work is hindered by lack of resources, lack of political will and systems failures. You find it hard to do your jobs as effectively as you would like to and need to.

Times of change

The idealised picture of rural families and communities has played an important part in the social and cultural history of Australia. And it is an idyll which has a strong presence still, continuing to shape much of our concept of ourselves as a nation and a people. For some families living in rural areas, life can be good. A slower pace of life, the physical beauty of the Australian landscape and, for some, a greater sense of community are all aspects of rural life that many urban Australians dream about.

However, while we crave for the image to be true, we know that other harsher realities have intervened. For many life is unbearably difficult in rural and remote Australia. For many the lives of rural families are now described more readily in terms of insecurity, despondency and despair.

Distance and remoteness, the extremes of weather and the uncertainties of the rural economy are all factors that can influence and erode the quality of life for many rural families. Today families living in rural, regional and remote Australia are struggling with economic and social change and reduced services. Rural life is again at the forefront of our national self-image, this time representing the struggles and hardship of wider Australia. In the last few decades the infrastructure and community of many Australian rural, regional and remote communities have been slowly pared away. In town after town across Australia banks, post offices, health and medical services and hospitals have been disappearing. Government support for public services is being reduced and the quality of life for many people is being reduced with it. It has been described to me as the "dying town syndrome".

Human rights

All of these issues have human rights dimensions. They affect the most basic rights of rural Australians.

By virtue of birth each of us has an entitlement to certain fundamental human rights. Human rights are not granted to us by others or by the government. They are our entitlements to be enjoyed simply by reason of our common humanity and innate dignity as human beings. For that reason we cannot agree to give them up and they cannot be taken away from us.

Human rights are universal. They apply to all people irrespective of their status or their circumstances. They are not just for minorities or for the majority. They are for everyone.

Human rights are spelt out in a number of international treaties. It is a common misconception that human rights are imposed on sovereign nations by the United Nations. While there are some standards - such as the universal prohibition of torture and genocide - which apply to every government regardless of its own inclinations, the truth is that countries choose for themselves whether or not to sign up to a treaty. If they do, it is akin to a contract.

Two of the most important human rights treaties are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both concluded in 1966. The rights they spell out are wide-ranging and set minimum standards which all participating countries agree to implement.

Rights and freedoms recognised in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights include:

The rights contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights include the right of families to assistance and support to enable them to succeed as the fundamental group in society. Associated with this is the right to an adequate standard of living, requiring, at a minimum, adequate food and nutrition, clothing, housing and necessary care and support such as health and medical services. This treaty also covers economic rights such as the right to property, the right to work and the right to social security.

Another important treaty for families is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention makes it clear that children have the right to adequate services and that parents are entitled to appropriate support from the government in the care and development of their children. The Convention spells out that the child has the right

The Convention is a "family-friendly" document which places special emphasis on the role of the family and requires governments to support parents in looking after children.

Many people think of human rights only in terms of civil and political rights but it is clear from these treaties that people’s economic and material well-being are equally matters of human rights.

These rights are often overlooked by governments as they raise issues of public welfare and public spending and in a climate of fiscal restraint governments are unwilling to face issues which require more spending. And in a climate of economic rationalism governments reject many spending options that, in purely economic terms, are not cost effective. However we have committed ourselves as a nation to uphold these rights and ensure that the basic needs of every person are satisfied.

The status of families in rural Australia

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has responsibilities under Australian law to protect and promote these rights in this country. Since its establishment in 1986, the Commission has investigated many particular situations of human rights breakdown affecting families. They include care and protection of children, juvenile justice, mental illness, access to clean, safe water, access to appropriate health services and violence based on race or ethnicity. In every case we found that rural and remote Australians have distinctive human rights problems. They suffer a higher risk and a double disability.

Poverty

The incidence of poverty in rural and remote areas of NSW is considerably higher than the state average. A 1993 study estimated that the number of households in rural and remote areas living in poverty range from almost 1 in every 5 in major regional centres to as high as 1 in 4 in smaller and remote regions.

Social security

Access to the social security system is a real problem for many farming families. The capital value of their farms often prevents them from accessing social security benefits even though their income is very low. They can’t borrow because their cash flow is so low. They would lose a great deal on their capital investment if they were to try to sell their land. In addition, the average age of farmers is increasing - they are not as strong as they used to be and cannot do as much around the farm anymore. People in these circumstances sometimes experience depression but are reluctant to ask for help because they have always been self-reliant.

I have been told that the social security rules don’t take the needs of farming families into account. The Mid-North Coast Rural Service Providers Network has come up with some simple changes to the rules which I hope the Federal Government will look at seriously. For example, it proposes that a wider range of farmers could be paid a NewStart allowance to perform community service for 2 days each week. That makes a lot of sense, particularly if that community service assists rural development: training young people to take over in the future, ecological projects, assisting to diversify rural production. For ageing farmers the Network proposes a broadening of the assets test for aged pensions.

Health

The general health of rural people is worse than that of city people. Access to adequate health care, fewer GPs and virtually no specialists in most areas make it harder to maintain good health and make even everyday medical emergencies life threatening. Another serious problem is the comparative unavailability of appropriate rescue and treatment facilities.

In Corryong in Victoria, a town of 1,500 on which another 1,500 in the region depend, a former nurse told us

Heaven help anyone who has a heart attack, major accident or haemorrhage from now on, because with the downgrade of the Hospital Services our one and only ambulance with its one and only driver will have to get that person to hospital in Albury or Wodonga 125 kilometres away [which takes at least 90 minutes]. How can he drive and care for a seriously ill patient?

A recent study in the Barwon region found that each rural GP will see more patients than his or her urban counterparts, but see them less often.

Nationally, residents of the major urban areas have one GP for every 830 people. But in country areas there is only one GP for every 1,247 people.

Residents of rural and remote areas are at higher risk of violent death by accidents, suicide and murder than residents of urban areas. Factors contributing to this include high speed, long distance travel, often on unsealed roads, working with dangerous machinery and availability of firearms.

The New South Wales Country Women’s Association noted that one very worrying consequence of the downturn in the rural economy is that farm equipment is being serviced less regularly. It appears that one result is an increase in farm accidents.

Education

The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that education be equally accessible to all children. A study by the Centre for Rural Research found that rural children do not enjoy the same access to education and training as urban children. Many country schools are not adequately equipped to perform effectively and have difficulty in attracting and retaining high calibre teachers. While most rural schools have lower student-teacher ratios than most urban schools, rural schools face other difficulties in providing education, including limited choices of classes, lack of specialisation in teaching staff and fewer resources for library, sports and computer facilities. Many rural communities have no schools at all and children may be forced to attend school in neighbouring communities which taxes their time, energy and educational aspirations. This situation is worse at the secondary school level. Many rural schools are not funded to cater appropriately for the needs of children with a disability. Many do not offer classes beyond Year 10. Both these situations force country students to travel long distances to attend neighbouring schools or to leave their families and communities and go to boarding school.

Studies have shown that country students, particularly Aboriginal students, are more than twice as likely to drop out of school before Year 12 than children in metropolitan areas.

Access to child care

It has never been easy for rural families to get good quality child care but it seems to be getting worse, not better. Regardless of arguments about whether governments are spending more or less on child care in absolute terms, it is clear that many individual services have been cut back and that many families can no longer afford it.

The Federal Government’s decision in August 1996 to remove the Operational Subsidy from community based long day care centres, which came into effect on 1 July 1997, has had that effect, for example. The June 1997 edition of the newsletter Broadside published by the Community Child Care Co-Operative Ltd ( NSW) commented:

The Federal Government’s decision to remove Operational Subsidy from community based long day care centres means that in NSW, 450 services providing child care places will lose a total of $16.7 million per year.

The impact of the removal of operational subsidy presents the early childhood profession with serious questions regarding affordability and quality of care. As of 1 July 1997 it is predicted that the loss of operational subsidy will result in increased fees of up to $25 per week, or a reduction in service providers.

Under these circumstances the most disadvantaged families in the community - those with very limited resources and those requiring specialist services to address particular areas of need - bear the greatest cost. Lack of affordable child care services clearly affects country people, many of whom are already in a lot of financial difficulty.

Access to Family Court services

A particularly serious issue for rural families has been the closure of Family Court registries and the cutting back of circuit counselling services. The alternative for people now is to travel sometimes very long distances to the nearest Family Court. For families in stressful situations of conflict and potential violence, these are not satisfactory options. In a report on children and the legal system the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission recommended that closure of Family Court registries should be treated as a least favoured option for dealing with funding constraints in the Family Court. We recommended that circuits of the counselling service to rural and remote areas be maintained to an adequate level. The report also recommended the expansion of toll free telephone access to the court and greater use of video link and other technology to increase access to Family Court services for rural families and children.

Other services

Lack of access is a problem across the entire spectrum of support services in rural areas. One example from evidence to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s 1988 Inquiry into Homeless Children particularly sticks in my mind. Although it is somewhat dated now I would like to mention it because it illustrates the problem in very stark terms. We were told that there was just one child protection worker for the entire north-west of Western Australia because 3 positions could not be filled. This worker told the Homeless Children Inquiry, "if we have a situation of incest, the facilities here for anyone to be treated in terms of counselled, having been a victim, a non-abusing parent [or] a perpetrator, are non-existent".

And since 1988 the problem has got worse, not better. In 1995 a House of Representatives inquiry into youth homelessness showed that many rural and remote communities continue to lack essential service infrastructure which is required to support families. While local community support networks still exist in rural and remote communities, the changing social and economic circumstances in these communities no longer provides the safety net it once did for people when they are in crisis. The lack of support services for families in small rural communities was seen by local community service providers as contributing to family breakdown and youth homelessness. A submission from a worker in a neighbourhood centre commented:

In my opinion, support for the family unit, is a need that is sadly lacking within our community ... In many cases, families are dissolving unnecessarily, because there is not enough adequate support to assist people work through their difficult period. Young people are often the innocent victims .. neglected and ignored during times of family upheavals.

Another submission from a youth service in the Forster/Tuncurry area of NSW, which is experiencing rapid population growth with the area being settled with young families, outlined the scarcity of resources and the difficulties members of the community have in accessing mainstream services.

The area is poorly serviced for families and young people experiencing difficulties. Welfare Services for young people in the Shire consist of a Drug and Alcohol Worker at Community Health, Youth Development Officer, Youth Accommodation Support Worker. A Family Counsellor from Taree services Forster/Tuncurry one day per week. There is no emergency accommodation.

Indigenous families

I will be addressing the session on Reconciliation later today, so I don’t propose speaking in detail now about issues facing Indigenous families. Suffice to say, most of the problems I have just described have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous families. This is not only because so many are located in rural areas, although that is certainly an important factor. It is also because of the entrenched prejudice and discrimination which is the daily experience of many Indigenous Australians.

The elderly

One group of rural Australians at particular risk - whether or not they are part of a family unit - is the elderly.

We know, for example, that war veterans and war widows are over-represented outside the major metropolitan areas - a third of those entitled to health care through the Veterans Affairs Department live in the country. Frail, elderly people are clearly very vulnerable because of the scarcity and inadequacy of medical services in rural areas. Many veterans suffer psychological and emotional problems arising from their war service, but counselling and support services - as the Commission has found in previous inquiries - are sparse in the bush.

The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Mr Bruce Scott, has undertaken to improve this situation for veterans and their dependants. In October 1996 he announced a ‘Health Policy for the Veteran Community in Rural and Remote Areas’ designed to improve access and flexibility.

The young

The problems facing young people in rural and remote areas are many and complex. Young people in the bush face a greater likelihood of unemployment than their city cousins. Their parents are more likely to be unemployed. And their families are more likely to be living in poverty. The problems of these young people are reflected in the substantial increase in the suicide rate for young rural people (aged 15-24 years) over recent years. Country Australia now has one of the highest youth suicide rates not only in this country but in the world. One-third of Year 11 and 12 students surveyed in the Riverina in 1993 reported having suicidal thoughts.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Report on Mental Illness identified many factors contributing to the relatively high levels of suicide among young rural males:

Economic conditions and remoteness combine to deny young people and others their basic rights, including in too many cases the right to life itself.

Although only about one-third of the NSW workforce live in rural areas, more than half the young unemployed live here. They have fewer opportunities for employment and are more likely to spend long periods out of work than their Sydney counterparts.

Women

These problems fall very heavily on the shoulders of rural women. They carry the main burden of family and domestic responsibility. They are also major contributors to rural life through community work and in many other ways. Yet they often receive little support in these roles. A number of women and their organisations have written or spoken to me about the ‘invisibility’ of rural women and the lack of choice and opportunities which often characterises their lives.

An area of major concern for rural women is the lack of access to advocacy and other services tailored specifically to their needs, particularly services to assist women who experience discrimination or domestic violence. The isolation and lack of support is especially acute for rural women with disabilities and those from non-English speaking backgrounds.

There is an urgent need for more specialist medical services for women in rural areas, to deal with issues such as breast cancer. The Kathleen Cunningham Foundation for Breast Cancer Research recently wrote to me

Between 1991-1994, breast cancer was the cause of death of more than 2600 women in rural areas. Women with breast cancer who live in rural areas are often disadvantaged by geographic isolation. They may live far from sources of breast cancer information, access to specialist medical facilities, or valuable support networks.

I was very pleased recently to hear that in response to this great need Australia Post has provided a grant of $100,000 to the Kathleen Cunningham Foundation to improve the treatment options for rural women with breast cancer, and that this has been supplemented by matching funds from the federal Government.

Bush Talks

The problems I have just described and others demonstrate the need for much greater attention and priority for families living in the bush. For this reason our Commission initiated the Bush Talks program in March 1998.

In Bush Talks Commissioners and staff are visiting as many regional centres, rural towns and remote communities as possible this year and early next year in every State and Territory. We go to listen to what country Australians tell us about their lives, their well-being, their future and the future of their children. And we go to find ways to respond to their needs more effectively.

The program has received strong support from the government, mainstream media and peak country bodies such as the Country Women’s Association, Rural Youth, the RSL, ATSIC, and the National Farmers Federation. Dr Wendy Craik, Executive Director of the National Farmers’ Federation said

NFF is concerned that the gradual reduction in services to rural Australia, especially in the areas of banking, health and education, are impacting on some of the rights outlined in the Commission’s mandate. These include the right ‘to family life, education, welfare assistance and health care,’ and the right [for children] ‘to have their best interests taken into account in decision making affecting them.

The aim of the visits and talks is to identify the key human rights issues of concern to country people. While general research can be obtained from other agencies and reports I considered it fundamental to visit the rural and regional communities we were concerned about to get a real understanding of the problems facing them.

So far we have visited a number of communities and already we have learnt a lot. The decline of rural health services has surfaced as the biggest concern so far. We’ve had a letter from the General Manager of Jerilderie Shire Council. Her community was without a doctor for 12 months. Now they’ve attracted one, he’s been denied full visiting rights at the hospital until the future of the hospital is determined. He can use the hospital only for accident and emergency cases and has a four hour limit on in-patient care he can provide. But he can visit another hospital - 35 kilometres away with no public transport link to Jerilderie.

But people are talking generally, not just in health, about the need for more and better services: a complete reversal of the current situation.

The Commission is considering this and is looking for ways we can do something about the problems. That will involve a number of possibilities, perhaps an inquiry, a submission to government, a report, or a project in partnership with a local government authority or a State or national representative organisation. But the results have to be tangible to benefit people.

Positive initiatives

As we move around the country we are also learning about many local initiatives to address these rural human rights problems. It seems that, while governments dither or do nothing, many communities are responding themselves in innovative ways to their needs. They are doing it with few resources but with great commitment. This demonstrates yet again that the strength of country Australia lies in communities working together to solve problems. Let me give you just a few examples of what I have seen.

In Port Augusta in South Australia a group called Rural and Isolated Children’s Exercise (RICE) provides services to many of the most disadvantaged children on isolated settlements and properties across about two thirds of the State. It has been doing so for over 20 years. It offers family counselling and family support services, mobile child care and other programs for these children and their families.

Other communities are moving to establish services to support people of non English speaking background. Rural Australia has a much smaller proportion of its population born in non English speaking countries than urban Australia does. These people come from many different countries and so the numbers from each are small. They often experience isolation and do not know where to find the services and support they need. They can also experience discrimination and racism. There seem to have been a good number of groups established over the last year to two to provide this support. In Orange a multicultural group was established last August. In Port Macquarie I was pleased to speak at the launch of Multi Kulti in May this year. I have heard of similar groups forming elsewhere.

In North West Tasmania local community service organisations were concerned by the high level of suicide among young people. They knew that many suicides were of young gay men and lesbians but that these young people were rarely visible and seldom sought support from local community service agencies. They also knew that there were many outspoken opponents of repeal of Tasmania’s anti-gay criminal laws in North West Tasmania and that the area had seen meetings at which some of the most virulent anti-gay hatred had been preached. They feared the effect of these local events on young people struggling to establish their identities as gay or lesbian. These agencies cooperated in an extensive study of issues confronting young gay men and lesbians in the area and published the results in Working it out now. They have decided on many initiatives to ensure that these young people are supported and affirmed in their own communities and that they are no longer forced to leave.

In Dubbo the Remote and Rural Health Training Unit has developed a new approach to two problems, the departure of young people from country towns and the inability of these towns to attract and retain health care workers. The unit is conducting a week long health care career options program for 20 yr 10 students from high schools in surrounding towns. It hopes that local young people will be interested in being trained in health care work and will remain in their own communities in these roles.

Finally the breast cancer initiative I mentioned earlier is another example of what is possible when local and national resources are put behind rural people in addressing their needs.

Conclusion

Without appropriate community support and government action the quality of life experienced by many families in rural and remote Australia will continue to be eroded. This is an issue at all times but particularly at times of hard decisions about reductions in public expenditure. It is for economists to argue about the size of the public sector the economy can afford and for governments to decide how much public money will be raised and spent. My human rights concern is about priorities. When allocating public funds, when developing or cutting programs, all levels of government ought to give primary consideration to the human rights of the people they represent and serve. Priority should be given to providing adequate funding for programs that seek to meet the human rights of all Australians families.

Last updated 1 December 2001