What is Meant by Poverty?

Many Australians deny that real poverty exists in Australia and hide behind arguments about defining what is poverty. The committee set out a clear and logical approach to this question—

"Poverty is defined in absolute and relative terms. Absolute poverty refers to people who lack the most basic of life’s requirements; food housing or clothing.

"Relative poverty is defined not in terms of lack of sufficient resources to meet basic needs but is about lack of access to the opportunities most people take for granted—food, shelter, income, jobs, education, health services, childcare, transport and a safe place for living and recreation as well as exclusion from social networks and isolation from community life."

The Extent of Poverty in Australia

There is absolute poverty in Australia. While not to be compared with the tragedies of millions of people in African countries starving to death, it is a real problem. There are many Aboriginal people in remote communities who live in some form of absolute poverty as do many of the 100,000 homeless people existing in and around our cities.

There have been a number of recent studies that have attempted to estimate the actual numbers of Australians who live in poverty. The results vary widely from 3 million (St. Vincent de Paul Society), to 1.5 million (Brotherhood of St. Laurence) and even the most

conservative estimate by the Centre For Independent Studies found "a million Australians live in chronic poverty". The National Council of Churches reported the telling fact that in 2003, 2.5 million people asked the Salvation Army and other welfare agencies for assistance with basic food, clothing and shelter.

Children in Poverty

Children in poverty is an emotive issue that has engaged the attention of politicians ranging from Bob Hawke’s famous 1987 election promise "by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty" to John Howard’s March 2004 commitment of $365 million over four years principally for "early intervention strategies to help children and families at risk of not growing up in a stable and supportive environment".

The committee found that there have been a number of government initiatives to assist poor families that reduced the proportion of children in poverty in the late 1980s and early 1990s but the rate has increased again in the late 1990s.

The committee noted government initiatives had improved the poverty rate of children in sole parent families from 28% in 1990 to 21.8% in 2000 but it still meant that one in five Australians living in sole parent families is in poverty. Research by St Vincent de Paul Society showed 850,000 children were living in 435,000 jobless households, plus another 163,000 children were living in working-poor families,

Unemployment and the Working- Poor

The report emphasises the obvious [to all but Costello and his spin doctors.—Ed.] that unemployment and under-employment are the major causes of poverty and deprivation. The report notes once again the official unemployment rate now reduced to about 5.6%, which the government hails as a great achievement, masks the hidden situation of over double the official rate or more than 1.25 million Australians who are unemployed or under-employed. In some groups, mothers, youth, indigenous Australians, mature age people and people with disabilities the rate is tragically very much higher.

In addition, the committee found that a new and worrying dimension of a working-poor has developed into the work-poverty relationship during the last decade or so. They point out that the prevalence of working-poor households in poverty is due simply to low wage employment. This has been driven by the increasing casualisation of the work force. By August 2002, casual workers comprised 27.3% of all employees. More recently the weakening under the Howard Government of the industrial relations system has inhibited the bargaining power of casual and part-time workers to obtain proper living wages.

The committee found that over a million Australians are living in poverty despite living in households where one or more adults have some employment.

The Recommendations

The report documents in page after page the dimensions of poverty in Australia relating to access and affordability of housing, education and health, as well as the causes and impact of poverty on youth, older people, migrants, refugees, indigenous Australians and people with disabilities. The report makes 95 recommendations proposing actions to attack poverty and problems in all these areas. They are far too detailed to list here but the key recommendations are the two final ones—

Recommendation 94

That a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy be developed at the national level and that this involve—

• An initial summit of commonwealth, state and local governments, the welfare sector, unions, the business sector, community groups, income support customers, and relevant experts in the field be held to highlight the importance of the issue.
• A commitment to achieve a whole of government approach. That is, coordination across policy areas such as employment, health, education, income support, community services, housing and other relevant areas to reduce poverty and poverty of opportunity.
• Not longer than a 12 month period of consultation.

Recommendation 95

That a statutory authority or unit reporting directly to the Prime Minister be established with responsibility for developing, implementing and monitoring a national antipoverty strategy and that this entity—

• Establish benchmarks and targets to measure progress against a series of anti-poverty objectives.
• Report regularly to the Parliament on progress against the strategy; and
• Undertake or commission research into a range of poverty reduction measures.

The Howard Government’s Shameful Response

One would have hoped that a group of experienced senators from the so-called "House of Review" after receiving so much evidence, and so many submissions from the community, on such an important issue could have come up with a bipartisan report and recommendations.

Sadly this was not so. The two government senators produced a minority report that opens with the comment that they view the report as "a shallow, naïve and purely political attempt to condemn the government of the day".

Sadly this was not so. The two government senators produced a minority report that opens with the comment that they view the report as "a shallow, naïve and purely political attempt to condemn the government of the day".

One wonders where the worthy senators were during the exhaustive inquiry with their statements that dismiss the extent of income inequality, the existence of workingpoor and under-employment with "most part-time workers work the hours they want to" and so on.

John Howard’s response has been to reject entirely the key recommendations of the report to set up appropriate task forces, etc., to attack poverty seriously as set out above. For good measure he added this gem: "It’s fair to say that the rich have got richer but the poor have not got poorer . . . there are people who are missing out but it’s important to get this income distribution thing in perspective."

Where to Now?

The first step lies as it does with so many social issues in defeating the Howard government at the next election.

In response to the report the Labor opposition has promised to convene a national summit on poverty and inequality if elected. It would set targets for poverty reduction, covering income, employment, health, education and community services.

Whether this is successful in putting poverty squarely on the national agenda and getting action will need all governments , the business sector, unions, churches and welfare groups as well as workers and ordinary citizens to work together with a commitment to rebuild Australia into a fair and just society.