AM - Major charity says wealth gap growing

AM - Major charity says wealth gap growing: "Major charity says wealth gap growingPRINT FRIENDLYEMAIL STORY
AM - Monday, 30 May , 2005 08:20:00
Reporter: Liz Foschia
TONY EASTLEY: A major charity is challenging the Federal Government's claims that households enjoying the strongest growth in earnings in the past eight years have been those at the bottom end of the income ladder.

The St Vincent de Paul Society says on the contrary, the gap between Australia's rich and poor is growing � a situation that will be exacerbated by tax cuts in the Budget. The view is contrary to that provided by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, on which the Prime Minister has based his claims.

But the charity's Terry McCarthy, speaking here to reporter Liz Foschia, says the NATSEM figures are a mathematical illusion.

TERRY MCCARTHY: The Prime Minister, based on NATSEM research, has been saying for some years now, and making what we say is a spurious assertion that the poor in Australia are growing rich at a faster rate than the rich are.

Now, we would have to say that that's just a cruel hoax on the whole millions of Australians, because the simple fact that in absolute terms this is not true. "