Australians Back Action to Track and Address Child Poverty
ABC News June 28, 2024 Four in five Australians (83%) want the Federal Government to officially define and measure poverty levels, and for income support payments to be boosted to prevent children from living in poverty, according to new research by the Australia Institute. The Federal Government has no official definition or measure for tracking and reporting on national poverty levels.
Key Findings: Four in five Australians (83%) want the Federal Government to regularly measure and report on poverty rates in Australia. An overwhelming majority of Australians (81%) agree that income support payments should be set at a rate that does not cause any child to live in poverty. Australians are highly concerned that Australia has a high child poverty rate compared to other developed countries (69%), and about the effects of this on health and lifespan (83%) as well as education and employment (85%). One in six Australian children (about 761,000 children) live in poverty according to research from ACOSS and UNSW. The OECD finds that Australia’s youth poverty rate is the 13th-highest among member nations, surpassing the UK, Germany and Canada.