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John Falzon

Headshot of John Falzon

 Dr John Falzon is senior fellow in inequality and social justice at Per Capita. He is a sociologist, poet and social justice advocate and was national CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia from 2006 to 2018

May 2020

  • The Australian flag

    We have a right to expect government to do what markets cannot: social and economic protection for all of us

    John Falzon
    We are all in danger, we cannot depend on a fractured society or a fragmented economy to deliver collective healing and health

December 2019

  • a family spending their evening at a beach in Sydney, as smoke haze continues to hang over the city with more than 50 bushfires still burning across New South Wale

    We cannot indulge in the luxury of despair. We need to engage in the hard work of hope

    John Falzon
    Neoliberalism has successfully dismantled much, but not all, of the social democratic project in Australia

November 2019

  • Marriage equality advocates outside Parliament House in Canberra in 2017.

    Progressive and collective social struggle is the path out of neoliberalism

    John Falzon
    From marriage equality to the climate emergency, the best policy is formed in the crucible of analysis and agitation

July 2019

  • Protestors in Melbourne march against the global climate crisis on 24 May.

    Next left: where to now for Australian progressives?
    Empathy is more useful than fear in the fight for progress

    John Falzon
    If Australians want a fairer society, we must unite to protect one another

April 2019

  • A homeless man sits outside a department store in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008. Prime Miinister Kevin Rudd announced today that the government will spend $1.2 billion over the next four years on building new housing to prevent homelessness. (AAP Image/Jenny Evans) NO ARCHIVING

    The budget may not be vicious, but it entrenches neoliberal inequality

    John Falzon
    I’ve listened hard for the sound of wealth trickling down but all I hear is the sound of the excluded still waiting

April 2018

  • The hand of an older person is seen taking Australian coins out of a purse.

    If we want a strong economy, we must have a social infrastructure budget

    John Falzon
    It’s time for an alternative to the dying neoliberal framework. We cannot risk any further erosion of our social protection system

December 2017

  • Australian Social Services Minister Christian Porter delivers his address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Wednesday, November 22, 2017. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

    Inequality is not a personal choice – it's a choice governments make

    John Falzon
    We need a solid jobs plan but we keep getting a putting-the-boot-into-the-unemployed-plan and a slashing-social-expenditure-plan

September 2017

  • Women’s march to protest Trump’s inauguration down Park St on 21 January 2017 in Sydney

    The proposed welfare bill will push people further into poverty. We have to stand together against it

    John Falzon
    With discriminatory and demonising policy measures the government is again taking from those who have little and giving to those who have much

August 2017

  • Joe Hockey, Scott Morrison and other male ministers in the House of Representatives, Australia

    Inequality is a political choice. No matter how long it takes, we will defeat it

    John Falzon
    Under a neoliberal agenda, governments are effectively arming bullies with sticks and instructing their victims to stand still for the tormentors

November 2016

  • Homeless woman in arcade

    Housing inequality is a failure to govern, and the market is not the answer

    John Falzon
    We need to change the way we think about housing. Like access to education and health, having a home is a human right

September 2016

  • Australian Social Services Minister Christian Porter

    Australia does not have a welfare problem. We have a poverty problem

    John Falzon
    While he talks of ‘revolutionary’ vision in the welfare sector, Christian Porter ignores the fact that unemployment is a failure of the market, not the person

December 2015

  • protest signs

    Under the guiding stars of struggle and hope, we can have a truly inclusive ideas boom

    John Falzon
    As long as we entrench inequality, the ideas boom will be the preserve of an elite rather than the inclusive and diverse phenomenon it should become

May 2015

  • A man walks past a Centrelink branch in Melbourne, Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The federal budget has propsoed sweeping changes to Centrelink payments including Newstart unemployment support and the aged pension. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING

    Are the unemployed supposed to be grateful for 'Budget 2015: still cruel'?

    John Falzon
    Expecting the unemployed to be grateful for waiting one month instead of six for benefits is like thanking someone for only cutting off your fingers after they threatened to cut off your arm

October 2013

  • Embargoed to 0001 Monday October 7 Undated file generic photo of Primary School children at work in a classroom. Schools have been accused of teaching on the cheap by using unqualified staff to take lessons. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday October 7, 2013. Teaching assistants as well as cover supervisors are being drafted in to take classes, rather than bringing in fully qualified teachers, according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). The union claimed that many support staff say they are being asked to provide cover for absent teachers, with some asked to take lessons for three days or longer. See PA story EDUCATION Teachers. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

    Welfare doesn't cause poverty – it is necessary for more equality

    John Falzon
    John Falzon: Social spending, regardless of the screams of blue murder from those who have enough, helps build greater equality. Well-targeted spending is an investment in the health of the nation
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