Dave Richardson
Senior Research Fellow

As we reach the middle of the campaign there has been a decide lack of focus the most vulnerable in society – those children living in poverty.

The lack of debate on the topic does not reflect a lack of a problem. ACOSS has noted that “there are 3.3 million people (13.4%) living below the poverty line of 50% of median income, including 761,000 children (16.6%).”

Back in the 1987 election campaign Prime Minister Bob Hawke rather famously set the goal: “By 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty”. He was often ridiculed for that statement afterwards, and yet it is undeniable that his setting the goal did have an impact. IN the 1970s and 1980s a family of 4 living on government benefits was very much living below the poverty line. After Hawke set the ambition, that was reversed.

The Hawke Government achieved an increase in payments for an unemployed family that put it above the Henderson poverty line in 1990.

Alas it did not last for long, and from the peak of over 10% above the poverty line, that figure gradually declined until around 2002 when that family was back on the poverty line and it kept getting worse.  

That was dramatically changed during the pandemic when the Coalition Government doubled the single rate of Jobseeker. The income of our family of 4 did not increase quite as much as the payments for children and rent assistance were not changed so that a family’s income went up much less than a single beneficiary, but it still massively lifted families out of poverty.

And then the boost ended.

The most recent figures suggest poverty is again a major problem for a high proportion of the Australian population – with those families on government benefits living around 9% below the poverty line

Unfortunately, the problem in reality is likely worse than that. The Henderson poverty line uses GDP per capita as its base, but that has been falling of late, whereas inflation and cost of living has been rising. If we instead adjusted the poverty line to take into account the recent inflation, the family of 4 would be nearly 18% below the poverty line.

Can child poverty be addressed again?

Australia is a much wealthier nation than it was in 1987 when Bob Hawke set his anti-child poverty target. Real GDP per capital is now around 75% higher. Yet Australia has experienced a long period with the poverty gap much higher than in the lead up to the Hawke Government’s no-child-in-poverty target.

If we could do it by 1990 Australia can do it again in 2025. Unlike the pandemic measures, this time the emphasis should be on improving payments for parents with children – just like Bob Hawke did with the emphasis on payments called “Family Allowance Supplements” at the time. 

Unfortunately, in tonight’s leaders debate the problems of poverty will likely be brushed over. They should not be.