Culture

SBS Has Made A Fascinating Interactive Map Highlighting Australia’s Most Disadvantaged Areas

Spoiler: it's not just Mount Druitt.

by Meg Watson  15 May 2015

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After the final two episodes of the controversial three-part series were fast-tracked last night, for better or worse, Struggle Street is now over. And, with the show able to be judged in full as the creators intended, it’s clear many of the problems people had with the pilot are still pretty relevant. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the persisting condescension of a narrator who sounds like Russell Crowe auditioning for a docudrama on the Rabbitohs.

But, while it’s copped a lot of criticism for its representation of both the participants themselves and the larger Mt Druitt area, the show’s work to highlight Australian poverty and socio-economic disadvantage is proving incredibly helpful. On Q&A this week, after a total condemnation of the SBS production, the panellists all took part in an in-depth and practical discussion about possible solutions to the welfare and education systems in underprivileged areas. Now, SBS themselves are contributing to this larger conversation.

“The SBS documentary Struggle Street focuses on Mt Druitt in western Sydney, but the issues faced by residents there are present in many communities across Australia,” writes journalist Jason Thomas in a piece published yesterday afternoon. Accompanied by an interactive map of ABS statistics documenting the relevant issues such as homelessness and poverty, the piece then invites you to have a look at how these communities compare to one another.

map1

The colours of each area were decided by the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage which is in turn calculated with things like unemployment rates and average incomes. This doesn’t include outside influences such as drug abuse and mental illness, but generally: the darker the green, the worse things are.

Unsurprisingly, large areas of the Northern Territory and Western Australia are some of the worst places affected but, despite all the stigma which has been attached to it recently, Mt Druitt isn’t even the worst for NSW. As SBS point out, rural centres like Brewarrina, Coonamble, Walgett, Casino, Kempsey and Fairfield suffer the worst stats statewide.

This is also mirrored in an accompanying map released yesterday which focusses solely on unemployment rates.

Of course, this isn’t new information. In fact it’s a large part of the reason people were annoyed by the show in the first place. Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali regularly accused Struggle Street of unfairly vilifying Mt Druitt and contributing to a kind of “postcode discrimination” that won’t help anyone in the area. And, in this way, SBS’ work to draw attention to the problem nationwide could be seen as an attempt to retreat from the controversial focus of the show and reconcile itself with these kind of critics.

But, regardless of the intention, it’s ultimately a useful thing.

With charity, advocacy and aid organisations continuing to shut down after being de-funded by the federal government and the welfare proposed in the new budget purposefully leaving unemployed young people out in the cold, it’s at least helpful to have the full picture.

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Head over to SBS for the full interactive map.