Recent outcomes on poverty alleviation raise concerns about the merit of Australia’s peak welfare body, as Alan Austin reports.
THE NATIONAL welfare monitor should go the way of the Australian Press Council and ABC News, and for the same reason — no longer fit for purpose, having been co-opted by mendacious anti-Labor interests.
In a disturbing recent media release, the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) made numerous blatantly false assertions. These included that poverty in Australia is still worsening, that poverty now afflicts one in seven people and one in six children. Current data disproves all these.
It openly accused the recently re-elected Labor Government:
‘While the Albanese Government has taken some steps to reduce poverty, such as supporting minimum wage increases and small income support increases, it must do so much more to turn this trend around.’
All the evidence shows ACOSS’s criticisms were valid several years ago under the long-departed and unlamented Coalition. But not today.
Fewer Australians now poorer than ever
Back in 2013, the Rudd/Gillard governments succeeded in increasing the single age pension above 34% of average total earnings, which ensured basic comfort for most retirees. Under the Coalition, this fell to 32.9% in 2020, then crept up to 33.5% at the 2022 Election. Yes, at those levels, thousands of pensioners had fallen back into poverty.
Wages then surged under Labor and so did the relative percentage of the age pension. This hit an all-time high of 34.7% in March 2023 and a fresh record of 35% in September 2023. It has remained above 34% ever since.
The single-aged pension was boosted by $1,276.60 per year in March 2024, a significant rise of 5.1%. Over that year, inflation was just 3.6%. The same happened a year later, in March this year, when the annual pension rise was another 3%, with inflation at 2.4%.
Those rises ensured hundreds of thousands of pensioners were lifted well above the poverty line.
Outcomes are more emphatic with the adult jobless allowance. This was above 22.5% of average total earnings for most of the Rudd/Gillard period. It tumbled during the dismal Coalition years to 21.68% in 2020, then recovered strongly after the Albanese Government won office. It climbed to 24.24% by the end of 2022, then to 26.19% a year later. It has remained above 25.3% of adult earnings since then.
Strong priority under Labor
As set out in detail last February, Labor has implemented at least 11 strategies to lift vulnerable Australians out of poverty.
As a result, the percentage of Australians in destitution is the lowest ever and most of those struggling are nowhere near as badly off as they were.
These are pretty important facts. ACOSS has not only refused to report them, but is conveying the opposite messages.
Instances of this are interviews with the anti-Labor ABC News, and media releases which distort the reality here, here and here.
By not confirming that poverty alleviation is greater under Labor, ACOSS is useless. By implying the opposite, it is worse than useless.
Dodgy definitions doom us to defeat
The principal failure of ACOSS and its partner, the University of NSW, is their definition of poverty as earning less than 50% of the median household income.
As explained here in September, if the Albanese Government doubled all Australian incomes while keeping outlays the same, poverty would remain unchanged.
This is because, however high incomes were and however luxurious living standards became, the same number would remain below the median income — by definition.
Clearly, the methodology is ludicrous.
Unacceptable time lags
The other obvious failure is the grossly excessive time lags.
The October media release states:
‘Using the most recent figures, researchers found 3.7 million people – 14.2% of the population – were living in poverty in 2022–23. That marked an increase from 12.4% of the population – or 1 in 8 people – in 2020-21.’
That data is far too old to be instructive.
The National Debt Helpline issued a report on the number of emergency calls it received in September on 1 October. We had to wait a full day to see whether hardship is easing or worsening. The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) issues reports on Australia’s gross debt every Friday, current to that day.
The Bureau of Statistics issued jobs data for September on 16 October, a 16-day wait. The Finance Department issued the overall budget situation in September, including all revenue, expenditure, net debt and the progressive deficit, in its monthly release on 24 October.
With all the university research tools available, ACOSS in 2025 should be able to show the 2025 situation. Unless, of course, current data reflects well on Labor.
Role of the non-government agencies
Until ACOSS can measure real-time poverty, perhaps it should forget trying to lecture governments and focus on private providers. Here’s what they could do.
A small proportion of the population is either unable or unwilling to benefit from government services, however generous they may be. These include those whose mental state, substance addiction or relationships ensure all government payments disappear before they can be spent on accommodation or food and a smaller number who refuse government aid on principle.
The Productivity Commission estimates this cohort – which it labels as in ‘persistent poverty’ – comprises 1,650 per million adult population. Currently, these number about 45,000.
These are the folks whom the private food banks and local welfare agencies exist to assist.
There is value in promoting these essential services, ensuring they feed the actual hungry rather than folks comfortably off looking for free meals and curbing their propensity to falsify the news.
Maybe ACOSS could be helpful after all.
Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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