Keep ignoring these problems and they will only get bigger

Such topics are often kicked down the road for discussion at a later date or, in some cases, never.

At present, the government has more elephants in its yard than the average zoo, and rather than dealing with them it is hoping they will become invisible, which with elephants, real or metaphorical, is nigh impossible.

The list includes the abysmal rate of the JobSeeker payment, which even the government's own economic inclusion advisory committee insists should be raised urgently. In April, around 815,000 people depended on JobSeeker and another 215,000 received youth allowance.

Imagine being a single person with no dependants, trying to extend $54 a day to cover rent, groceries and power bills. Never mind the fact that of 45,115 rental listings Australia-wide, none are affordable if you're on youth allowance and only three sharehouse rentals are affordable if you're on JobSeeker.

Nothing about this in the recent budget, though, and no explanation beyond mutterings about how the country can't afford an increase, as it risks fuelling inflation, yada yada. This is a major failure.

Another is housing, or the lack thereof. And homelessness, or the rising rate thereof. Both are the fault of successive governments. The impact of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounting on home prices is a massive elephant that only the Australian Greens and other parliamentary crossbenchers have the courage to raise. The same can be said about lifting tax rates for those with large superannuation balances, a clear equity issue if ever there was.

Then there's the cohort of refugees languishing in Port Moresby, whom the government declines to discuss let alone properly assist, and the damning reports on the financing of offshore detention. The many culprits and those in the know should still be held in the stocks and pelted with rotten fruit.

Instead, they're ... well, where are they? Riding elephants somewhere, presumably.

From a high-level parliamentary committee, we saw a report that condemned online gambling and recommended, inter alia, that ads during sports broadcasts be ended. Research shows the public, including sports fans, supports such a ban, but silence has been the response from both government and opposition.

Then there's the dilemma over how to give First Nations people a say in government decision-making without calling it a Voice to Government. Extra budgetary funding aimed at closing the gaps will not answer this all-important question, which goes well beyond a yes or no and extends to First Nations people making decisions that impact them.

All these issues and more are in the too-hard basket, parked to be handled, or perhaps not, sometime in the future.

Towering over them all, we have the final report of the parliamentary joint committee on human rights' inquiry into Australia's human rights framework. It was released at the end of May, with no fanfare from either major party.

In July 2023, St Vincent de Paul Society's submission to this committee supported the development of a Human Rights Act, urging that it must include the right to health care, housing, education, employment and adequate social services. These rights are not presently guaranteed.

The report, Inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework, received 400 submissions and 40,000 survey responses, and was informed by 130 consultations. It coincides with the Australian Human Rights Commission's five-year inquiry into Australia's national protections for human rights and anti-discrimination, and its final report, Free and Equal: Revitalising Australia's commitment to human rights.

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The commission's 12 recommendations focus on reforms, which it says, "would improve government accountability, increase awareness about human rights, and provide all people in Australia with better access to justice in case their rights are breached. And don't we need those.

The parliamentary joint committee's recommendations, including the establishment of a federal Human Rights Act, is likely to have a significant impact on one of the government's largest elephants, the Religious Discrimination Bill.

The bill's chequered path led to the Australian Law Reform Commission's March report with recommendations that prompted multi-faith leaders to doubt that "any balanced outcomes" could be reached. Their open letter said the ALRC proposals "would place unnecessary and unreasonable restrictions on the freedom of religious schools to give effect to the international human right of parents and guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions".

The mahouts have since guided this pesky pachyderm from public view, with the Prime Minister, recalling the Voice catastrophe, unwilling to proceed without bipartisan support. It will be no surprise if the bill never sees the light of day again, especially if an overarching Human Rights Act were to be adopted.

By not engaging with key issues affecting the national wellbeing, the government is only postponing decisions that will have to made eventually, and more likely in the shorter than the longer term.

Otherwise they will swell to even more elephantine proportions - a worsening housing crisis, because of the difficulty of finding suitable sites and trained builders, more people homeless and desperate, gambling running rampant, First Nations people in despair.

Like elephants, Australians have long memories, and they will neither forgive nor forget a government's inability or refusal to take action on issues that truly matter to them.