Choosing change

There is a common thread that often runs through referrals to child and family services and it’s something we can fix if we choose to. 

The reasons families become involved with child protection and child and family services are complex, multidimensional and intersectional. As such, identifying commonalities can often oversimplify many people’s complex realities.

Yet a recent survey conducted by the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare revealed that one ubiquitous determinant of child and family service use is poverty. 

Australia is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with an abundance of natural resources that fuel a thriving export market and high living standards for most. Yet the uncomfortable truth is that many children and families are excluded from Australia’s great wealth, trapped in cycles of poverty and disadvantage.

Poverty is more than simply people being poor – it is a compounding factor for every other issue families face. For children, poverty can have an enormous impact on their future wellbeing, linking strongly to delayed development, decreased engagement with education and decreased future employment opportunities. 

In our recent survey of child and family service providers in Victoria, 94 per cent of respondents indicated that either a large (69 per cent) or moderate (25 per cent) per cent of the families they work with are either living in poverty or at risk of doing so. And most believed that the families they work with have been significantly affected by the stark rise in the cost of living in Australia. 

Another shift we’re seeing is in the areas of need, with the need for emergency items such as food and medicine, as well as referrals to agencies for emergency items, financial counselling and crisis accommodation on the rise.

The poverty problem has long troubled governments, who have traditionally sought a quick fix to this complex issue. From what the sector is telling us, this band-aid approach isn’t working. 

A recent report by Anglicare Victoria estimates that raising Jobseeker payments to $88 per day would lift more than two million Australians out of poverty, including 840,000 children. The theory has been tried and tested. During the pandemic, boosted income support payments brought 646,000 people out of poverty.

Regrettably, poverty policies over the last three decades have been largely characterised by a reduction in assistance to those most in need. Changes in the social security system that occurred in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-8, freezing Family Tax Benefits, and most recently, the removal of the Coronavirus Supplement in 2021, are just some examples. 

We know that greater financial assistance holds the key to ending poverty. What we need is leadership that is steadfast in its commitment to ensuring that every Australian child and family has the means to lead safe, happy and healthy lives.

In 1987, then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke gave a speech in which he promised that by 1990 no Australian child would be living in poverty. Mr Hawke’s vision never materialised, yet his speech did resonate with people, and galvanised his Government to implement anti-poverty policies. And it worked. During Bob Hawke’s tenure as prime minister, child poverty fell by 30 per cent, more than any administration either before or after. 

What this shows is that poverty reduction can be done. We just need the right policies.

First, we need bold action taken by all levels of government to transform the country’s welfare system. This would involve raising unemployment benefits and carer allowances, and increasing the supply of social housing, to ensure that all children and families have a roof over their head. Secondly, widening access to free education, healthcare and social services to meet demand is an essential component of any poverty reduction strategy, as this creates a level playing field on which people can thrive, no matter their background. 

Better management of the cost of living crisis through increased wages and reduced food prices is also an increasingly urgent policy priority. Finally, processing the backlog of asylum seekers and refugees who often experience poverty while their applications are processed would shield many vulnerable people from the scourge of poverty. 

Children and families are looking to governments for action. Meaningful and considered reform of the social security payments and tax systems, paired with a national housing strategy and a guarantee that the wages of low paid sectors will rise in line with inflation are all policy choices that governments at both a federal and state levels can and should make.  Without urgent action on child poverty, inequality in Australia will continue to widen, as we are seeing in many other countries around the world. Now is our opportunity to prevent this from happening.