Attention Albo: Don’t forget those worst-hit by cost of living crisis

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been asked to make a commitment to those victims worst-hit by the cost-of-living crisis.

OPINION

The blight of the homeless is there to see on our streets, but poverty is harder to detect.

The Senate committee on Community Affairs recently issued a 60,000-word report on the topic, chaired by Senator Janet Rice.

The report opened with the graphic words from a submission from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

“Poverty is cruel,” it said.

“It creates the conditions that lead to degradation and exploitation as it insinuates itself in intergenerational trauma and humiliation.

“Families and communities living within its grip report feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness and despair aggravated by dependence on welfare benefits.

“The issue of poverty should not be an afterthought in policy.”

The blight of the homeless is there to see on our streets, but poverty is harder to detect. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Poverty is a social and economic story of disadvantage that, according to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), impacts more than three million people.

Although the Government does not have an official definition, submissions highlighted two generally accepted approaches to measuring poverty, including 50 per cent of median income (a version of which is used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and also the Henderson Poverty Line, which is the longest running poverty measure in Australia.

It was ACOSS and UNSW using the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics census data that provided the alarming statistics based around a poverty line of $489 per week for a single adult and $1027 per week for a couple with two children.

It concluded 13 per cent of people (or more than three million) and 16 per cent of children (or more than 760,000 children) live below the poverty line after housing costs.

The inquiry received statements from people with direct lived experience of the complex challenges, including how an inability to pay rent, energy bills, and transport and medical costs, all combine into feelings of hopelessness and impact health.

Plenty of Aussies are struggling to make ends meet. Picture Nikki Davis-Jones

They highlighted housing insecurity, housing quality issues, and homelessness, and how being “trapped” in insecure housing can have intergenerational impacts.

Many seeking to lessen poverty stressed the importance of getting an official definition to allow for its measurement and then tracking the progress on reducing poverty.

Poverty was a key focus during the Bob Hawke government, which reduced child poverty by 30 per cent in three years following his 1987 election commitment to end child poverty by 1990.

Professor Peter Whiteford, a member of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, noted that while there was criticism surrounding the government’s failure to fully achieve its pledge, it did reduce child poverty by more than any other OECD country at the time.

The St Vincent de Paul Society national council has recommended that a fresh target to halve child poverty by 2030 should be set by the Albanese government, along with policy and funding.