Executive summary
If I wasn't poor, maybe somebody would have asked for my side of the story…Iwould not be invisible. I would not be in pain. If I wasn't poor, I'd have justice in my life. I would be safe and have time to heal. Other people would be held accountable for their actions. I would not have slipped through the cracks my whole life. I could afford dreams. If I wasn’t poor securing proper healthcare services would not depend on my likability. I would be harder to victimise. I would have teeth. I would not have cursed my children to the same generational trauma I have been through.
Poverty in Australia today
1.1Poverty in Australia is a real and immediate problem. While there is no nationally agreed measure of poverty, according to analysis from the Australian Council of Social Services and the University of New South Wales, in 2019–20 more than one in eight people (13.4 per cent) and one in six children (16.6percent) lived below the poverty line after taking account of their housing costs. In total, that equated to over three million people living in poverty, including 761 000 children.
1.2Over the course of its inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia, the Senate Community Affairs References Committee (the committee) has heard a wide variety of evidence from the community.
1.3It has heard of the hardships and deprivations that individuals and families living in poverty face. It has heard how poverty negatively impacts all facets of their lives, including housing security, health outcomes, education and employment opportunities and social participation.
1.4These experiences of poverty are complex and all-consuming, and a purely financial lens is not sufficient to capture the full extent of the drivers and impacts of poverty. However, in its simplest terms, poverty is a function of an individual not having enough money to cover the expenses required to meet an adequate standard of living.
1.5Evidence to the committee identified the structural drivers behind why an individual can find themselves without enough sufficient income and living in poverty. These include economic factors, labour market factors (including employment and education opportunities), housing factors and social factors.
1.6In this regard, the committee was informed that due to these structural and systemic underpinnings, poverty is not simply a matter of individual inadequacy, personal deficits, or the straightforward result of private choices.
Focus of this interim report
1.7The committee’s inquiry is still ongoing and a final report will be presented by 31 October 2023. However, given the volume of evidence received so far and the pressing nature of many of the issues raised, the committee has chosen to publish an interim report.
1.8This interim report looks at the extent of poverty in Australia and sets out the calls from some inquiry participants for a national, contemporary definition of poverty. Those submitters advised the committee that without an agreed, contemporary definition there is no definitive way to determine the scale of poverty, to decide where resources should be applied, or to track whether any substantial progress is made towards addressing it.
1.9The report centres the lived experiences of Australians living in poverty to understand how the daily and long-term realities of poverty impact every single element of a person’s life. It sheds light on the compounding challenges that people from particular cohorts face when experiencing poverty, due to overlapping and intersecting forms of disadvantage and inequity, many of which are structural and systemic in nature. Moving forward, the committee intends to consider these outcomes, as well as potential solutions, in more depth.
1.10The report explores the relationship between income support payments and poverty. The committee was told that many people living in poverty in Australia rely on social security for their income. The committee heard from inquiry participants – including advocacy groups, community services and emergency relief providers, and individuals with lived experience – that Australia’s working-age income support payments were insufficient to meet the cost of essential, day-to-day goods and services, including food, rent, energy and healthcare.
1.11The committee also notes and acknowledges the longstanding calls from across the Australian community, including from payment recipients, advocacy groups, community services and emergency relief providers, academic experts, and the Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, to increase the base rates of income support payments.
1.12The committee ends the report by recommending that the Australian Government take urgent action so that Australians are not living in poverty, and that the Government prioritise policy measures in the upcoming May Budget that specifically target rising inequality and entrenched disadvantage, including through the income support system.
1.13Moving forward, the committee remains cognisant that there are a range of policy domains which can address poverty and disadvantage and work to improve life outcomes for the community. It will look to explore these further as the inquiry progresses.