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Canberrans are spending, and earning, 20 per cent more on average than their counterparts in other Australian capital cities. But the high average income can conceal the effects of a high-wealth city on residents on lower incomes - particularly the 38 per cent of Canberrans on Centrelink benefits or earning less than the $46,000 national median income. While planning rules have led to pockets of disadvantage in most suburbs, the latest ABS data on personal incomes released last week is a reminder that the ACT has possibly the most equitable spread of incomes of any capital city. His analysis looked at fine-grain data from the ABS household expenditure survey over the 10 years to 2016, comparing all states and territories on measures including rent, utilities, mortgage, rates, health, education, transport, cigarettes, alcohol and restaurants. Assoc Prof Phillips said the analysis found that Canberrans, on average, were earning and spending about 20 per cent more on household costs than residents of other capital cities. "Overall, there's not significant differences in the cost of living between the different cities, and we need to remember the data really tells us what people spend," he said. "The main differences relate to housing costs, where our rates and rents are relatively high - our rents are not as bad as Sydney or the NT, but higher than the rest of Australia." He said it was also surprising that spending on utilities - gas, electricity and water bills - in the ACT was lower than the $51 a week national average, at $46 for the ACT, despite bigger extremes in temperature than other cities. "I think partly that's due to Canberrans using less energy, the national accounts show we're using about 15 per cent less than we did about 10 years ago," he said. But Assoc Prof Phillips said Canberra was still "a difficult place to be poor", and being "a wealthy city" on average may mean some costs were higher for everyone. "If you're on Newstart at $540 a fortnight, or working on a low income, Canberra wouldn't be a good place to be, but on the flip side the chances of getting a good job might be higher than other cities," he said. ACT Council of Social Services director Susan Helyer said there could be as many 40,000 Canberrans struggling to get by on either federal benefits or on low and insecure incomes, below the national median income of about $46,000, significantly lower than the ACT's median income of $61,000-odd. She said the council's previous cost of living analysis showed costs were growing at a disproportionately higher rate for low income earners than those at or above the median. "It's really important I think to focus on those households that are on low incomes that are working, my understanding is that's where the biggest growth in demand is in the ACT for emergency (financial) assistance and financial counselling." Mr Owens said he had sought help from many people, but the low allowance and other barriers including a visual impairment meant he was struggling to find a way out of the cycle of living day to day. "The problem in Canberra is you see these powerful people walking the streets everyday, they are walking past homeless people everyday, but they're choosing to ignore what's in front of them," he said. "I know there are people out there who are worse off than me, but it's like there are two Canberras and someone's got to talk about it."

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