An ongoing and alarming rise in poverty is damaging the lives of millions of Australians. This stark reality makes it impossible for millions of hardworking Americans to afford both their rent and groceries. The poverty line for a single adult is pegged at $584 per week before housing costs. For the almost 500,000 Australians who depend on government assistance like JobSeeker, this income is a world away, underscoring an intensifying disaster.
Mike Sadler, a father of two, shares his personal experience of struggling to provide for his family during a period of financial difficulty. When he was still working with his hands and making less money, he fed his family what he would call the “brown food.” This phrase describes the cheap, starchy staples that often provide minimal nutritional benefit. The fortnightly income this left him with was only slightly higher than the poverty line of $1,115.70 with the Coronavirus Supplement added in.
The poverty gap for this demographic is nearly $380 per fortnight. That works out to just $190 per week, indicating that many of them live in extreme poverty and are having a difficult time just surviving. This continuing trend is troubling and should give all of us great concern. Latest figures from Public Policy Consulting indicate that in 2022-2023, 57% of renters in the bottom quintile of income experienced rental stress. This is an increase from 52% in 2020-21, illustrating the growth of this crisis for low-income families.
Families with kids are dealing with more urgent crises. The threshold of poverty for these families is $1,226 a week. Unfortunately, the people who need to count on government help are coming up short by $464 a week. Alarmingly, one in six Australian children—that’s over 750,000 children—are now living under this poverty line.
In September 2024, the federal government increased rent assistance by 10%, but community advocates argue that this adjustment is insufficient. Cassandra Goldie, the head of Australia’s most influential anti-poverty advocacy group, voiced deep fears. As she put it, “It’s just really disturbing for all of us to see an increase in poverty occurring on our watch. We have created a nation in which many Australians must live with the daily issue of choosing between food on the table and homelessness,” she said.
Right now the JobSeeker payment stands at $793.60 per fortnight for singles with no dependents. If you have kids, that figure jumps to $849.90. These payments are well below the income poverty line. As a result, people counting on this assistance are coming up about $205 per week under what they need. As Goldie underlined, this should be surprising—poverty is deepening, in one of the richest nations on Earth. This scary truth is something we all need to focus on.
Advocate Yuvisthi Naidoo from the Australian Alliance for Inclusive Transport reinforced these points by adding that “somewhere along the line, rent assistance is failing low-income earners.” Many individuals and families are caught in a cycle where insufficient income forces them to prioritize immediate needs over long-term stability.
Mike Sadler, fortunate enough to join TANF for Utah’s first time asked to come, shared. He stated, “Please, people shouldn’t be treating those who don’t have those resources like pariahs. All us humans need this. It’s part of who we are.” He further elaborated on the impact of financial strain on social participation, saying, “You just cannot participate in society, and when that happens, communities break down.”
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) just published a new report. It highlights that income support payments are now abysmally low, and we need big increases to even bring us up to the poverty line. Advocates such as Kate Colvin of House America have long called attention to the need for safe, stable housing that serves as a bedrock for security. She continued, “Access to a safe, decent and affordable home is the bedrock to building a stable, secure life.”
The housing crisis exacerbates these issues further. Colvin pointed out that Australia is currently in a social housing deficit of 640,000 homes and that the deficit is still growing. She urged the federal government to take immediate action: “To turn the tide on rising poverty we need the federal government to urgently deliver a major boost to public and community housing so people being squeezed out of the rental market can find a decent, affordable home.”
