Academic Communication: Optus's Strategies for Poverty Reduction

This report examines Optus's role in sustainable development, specifically focusing on poverty reduction in Australia. It begins with an introduction to Optus, highlighting its market position, revenue, and CSR spending. The report identifies poverty as a significant social issue in Australia, citing statistics from ACOSS and AnglicareSA. It then aligns with the sustainable development goal of reducing poverty, recommending two key strategies: supporting access to better education and developing employability skills, and providing housing solutions. The report details the benefits of each recommendation, emphasizing improved socioeconomic status, increased employability, and reduced homelessness. References from ACOSS, AnglicareSA, and Optus are provided to support the analysis.

ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION BUSINESS
AND ECONOMICS- SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
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Introduction
 Optus is one of the largest telecom company in Australia
 The company was founded in 1981 and currently holds 38% of the
Australian Telecom market.
 The company earned a revenue of AUD 8.43 billion as of 2017, with an
operating Revenue of AUD 4.308 billion and net profit of AUD 963 million.
 The company also spends a significant amount of money on CSR spending
about AUD 9.4 million and supporting about 299 charity organizations.
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Sustainability Issue: Poverty
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 Poverty is still a major problem faced by the Australian Government
 According to Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), more than 3
million Australians live below the poverty line and includes 739,000 children
(acoss.org.au 2018).
 According to the reports, one in eight adults and one in six children live in
poverty.
 Moreover, children in single parent families are three times more likely to
live in poverty (anglicaresa.com.au 2018).
 Australia’s poverty rate is the 14th highest as shown in the table next.
 The poverty have adversely affected the health and wellbeing of the
people, reduced access to proper healthcare and education and have
reduced employability among people living in impoverished and
disadvantaged conditions.

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Sustainable developmental goal: Reducing Poverty
 In order to improve the health and wellbeing of the people it is vital to
reduce poverty
 Since Optus already have significant involvement in community
development programs that aims to develop community inclusiveness and
wellbeing, education and employment, it can easily work towards the
reduction of poverty through these programs.
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Two recommendations to achieve sustainable
developmental goal
 Recommendation #1: Supporting access to better education and
developing employability skills
 Setting up community schools for children below the poverty levels- These schools can
engage teachers from across the country and provide education to children who cannot
afford it free of cost.
 Setting up fellowship programs for young teachers through which they can gain experience
by teaching children from the deprived communities
 Offering scholarships to students of merit to pursue higher education
 Setting up mobile classrooms
 Setting up workshops and seminars to develop key employability skills which can help
individuals from the families living below the poverty line to gain skills required to acquire
a job
 Setting up vocational training courses which can train people on specific skills to acquire
jobs
 Offering internship courses for promising students which can help them to acquire working
experience and thus increasing their employability
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Two recommendations to achieve sustainable
developmental goal
 Recommendation #2: Providing housing solutions
 The company can also help individuals who are unable to acquire housing for themselves
by providing them with affordable housing solutions.
 Housing is one of the most basic necessities and for people living below poverty line, a
lack of housing is the result of several problems such as mental health issues, violence,
drug abuse and unemployment.
 By providing affordable housing solutions, the impact of poverty can be significantly
reduced.
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Benefits for each recommendation
 Recommendation #1: Supporting access to better education and improving
employment skills
 It can help children to acquire better knowledge
 Through better knowledge, they can become more employable
 Providing vocational training can also help to acquire specific employment skills
 Better employment can help to improve the socioeconomic status
 Education and employment can also help to combat incidence of violence
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Benefits for each recommendation
 Recommendation #2: Providing Housing Solutions
 It can help to reduce homelessness
 Reducing homelessness can also reduce the incidence of violence and increase security
for people
 Proper housing can also increase access to education and healthcare
 Proper housing can also improve socioeconomic status
 Affordable housing can also increase access to social services
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Conclusion
 Poverty is a significant social problem faced by several Australians
 Two ways by which poverty can be combated includes increased education
and employability and providing housing solutions to families living below
the poverty line.
 These strategies can help the individuals have access to better
employment and improve their socioeconomic status.
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References:
 acoss.org.au (2016). Poverty In Australia 2016. [online] Acoss.org.au.
Available at: https://www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Poverty-
in-Australia-2016.pdf [Accessed 26 Oct. 2018].
 acoss.org.au (2018). Poverty – ACOSS. [online] Acoss.org.au. Available at:
https://www.acoss.org.au/poverty/ [Accessed 26 Oct. 2018].
 anglicaresa.com.au (2018). 7 Concerning Facts About Poverty in Australia -
AnglicareSA. [online] AnglicareSA. Available at:
https://anglicaresa.com.au/7-concerning-facts-about-poverty-in-australia/
[Accessed 26 Oct. 2018].
 optus.com.au (2018). Community. [online] Optus.com.au. Available at:
https://www.optus.com.au/about/sustainability/community#%20 [Accessed
26 Oct. 2018].
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