Street newspaper The Big Issue’s chief executive Steven Persson is warning the social enterprise’s greatest challenge lies ahead of it as the gap between’s Australia’s wealthy and poor widens.

Mr Persson said The Big Issue has already been navigating the COVID-19 global pandemic and associated economic downturns, which have hurt the business that generally relies on foot traffic in city CBDs to push magazine sales, but the biggest fight ahead of the company, and society more generally, still lies ahead.