They teach our children, tend to our wounds, wait our tables, deliver our parcels, and care for the elderly. Despite their value to society, a new report has found the workers we rely on most are being priced out of the rental market. Anti-poverty organisation Anglicare Australia surveyed just over 45,000 rental listings nationwide during one weekend in March, measuring their affordability against the full-time weekly wages of 16 essential occupations.
"We know of teachers who are marking students' homework and preparing lessons for the next day in sharehouses, and we hear constantly of ambulance drivers and construction workers who are starting an early shift, already having driven an hour from what's supposedly a cheaper rental." Those considering moving out of the major capital cities would find little relief, Chambers warned.