The Lowest Rung: Voices of Australian Poverty.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Laming, Madeleine
• Date: 01 January 2005

The Lowest Rung. Voices of Australian Poverty Mark Peel Cambridge & New York, Cambridge University Press, 2003. $29.95

This is an extraordinary book.

In the last few years there have been many books written about the impact of economic restructuring in Australia; well-written books, full of factual information, statistics and graphs--Michael Pusey's The Experience of Middle Australia. The Dark Side of Economic Reform and Hugh Mackay's Reinventing Australia. The mind and mood of Australia in the 90s come to mind, but none of them has captured the reality of poverty in such compelling detail as The Lowest Rung. In 1993, historian Mark Peel was working on a book about Elizabeth, South Australia, the town where he grew up. That experience, combined with his own childhood memories, led him to ponder the policies, the decisions and unexpected circumstances that have enabled some sections of the Australian community to prosper while others have slipped inexorably into poverty. He wanted to continue to write about people living in hard times, but not as a social policy...