As more than 3.6 million children start the 2025 school year, let’s legislate to end child poverty by Toni Wren
Australia made great strides in the 1990’s when the former PM Bob Hawke and his government committed to end child poverty. Child poverty wasn’t eliminated but it was reduced by 30% through a combination of policies including increasing family payments to reflect the cost of children; linking family payments to wage growth, to maintain pace with the cost of living and; introducing a new supplement for low-income families and rent assistance to help families and others on low incomes to assist with the cost of rent. The introduction of the child support scheme was another important poverty reduction measure, yet all these measures have been rolled back, leaving far too many of the 3.6 million Australian children starting the 2025 school year living in poverty.
Undertaken by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Child Poverty in Australia in 2024 found more than 820,000 Australian children are living in poverty and that this has increased by over 100,000 since the pandemic. The authors state poverty is expected to be even higher given increased essential living costs since 2022 when the data was collected. The report confirms that single parent families face more than three times the poverty rate of couple families (more than one in three, compared with less than one in 10). Children who experience poverty and housing stress are significantly more likely to suffer nervousness or feel unhappy with their lives for up to ten years after leaving home. “Poverty scars people. It gets under the skin. Children growing up in poverty often carry these scars with them for life.”
In 2021, according to the 2021 Australian Early Development Census, more than one in five Australian children were assessed as developmentally vulnerable when they started school, potentially reducing good health, education and social outcomes later in life. For children living in the most disadvantaged areas, more than one in three started school developmentally vulnerable and more than four in 10 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Research by the Australian Education Research Organisation states that very few students who start behind or fall behind, catch up.
Children living in poverty have lower school completion rates and lower scores on national tests such as NAPLAN. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students in outer regional and remote Australia, and students of parents with low educational attainment are three times more likely to fall behind than other students, according to the Productivity Commission, Productivity Commission. Surveys undertaken on behalf of The Smith Family consistently find parents in financial hardship worry they can’t afford uniforms, books, digital technology and excursions.
The boost in income support payments provided in the early months of the COVID pandemic delivered large reductions in poverty for adults and children. Child poverty rates were reduced to the lowest level in 20 years, but the gains were short-lived. The Centre for Community Child Health is one of Australia's leading research and policy centres focused on understanding and redressing childhood inequities. They state: “increased household income benefits children directly through better food, stable housing, and healthcare (the ‘investment’ model), and indirectly through improved parent mental health and capacity (the ‘family stress’ model). If early disadvantage, including poverty is redressed, half of child health and developmental problems in middle childhood can be reduced."
In 2024, Tony Pietropiccolo from the End Child Poverty campaign asked 14-year-old Perth students ‘When is it OK to leave a child in poverty?’ their answer was ‘Never.’ This sentiment is shared by the Australian population. The Australia Institute surveyed Australians about their views on poverty and child poverty in mid-2024. They found the vast majority of Australians are highly concerned about the effects of poverty on children’s education and employment and their health and lifespan. More than four in five agreed that income support payments should be set at a rate that does not cause any child to live in poverty and a similar percentage wanted the government to regularly measure and report poverty rates in Australia.
Children can thrive and be healthy when they have what they need to develop well. In this election year, we need all our parliamentarians and candidates to commit to end child poverty in Australia. This commitment should be enshrined in legislation to end child poverty, with measurable targets and actions to achieve this goal. To treat all of Australia’s children fairly, we need to ensure every family has what they need. A legislated plan to end child poverty would be a huge step to achieving this.
Toni Wren is a spokesperson for the End Child Poverty campaign and Principal Adviser to Single Mother Families Australia.
