Anti-Poverty Week display shows reality for many

During Anti-Poverty Week in October, the St Vincent de Paul Society (Vinnies) partnered with Uniting Tasmania, Catholic Care Tasmania, Mission Australia and TasCOSS to show the devastating impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on Tasmania’s children.

To raise awareness, the partner community service providers used lunchboxes to show the scale of child poverty situation in Australia.

60 lunchboxes were displayed, of which 10 were left empty to reflect the reality of the situation for passers by.

One in six children in Australia live below the poverty line and too many families are being forced to decide between buying food or paying bills.

“In Tasmania, our children are experiencing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis,” Vinnies Tasmania president Corey McGrath said.

“One in six children live below the poverty line and that is far too many.

“No family should have to choose between sending their children to school with food or paying their bills.”

TasCOSS CEO Ms Adrienne Picone said the knock-on impacts of growing up in a household in poverty were particularly acute for children and young people.

“Evidence shows that childhood poverty often leads to poor physical and mental health and diminished educational outcomes, and left unchecked the cycle of poverty repeats across generations,” she said.

“Reducing poverty starts with all governments exercising every policy lever at their disposal to give Tasmanians the support they desperately need.

“This includes setting income support payments at a rate that does not cause any child to live in poverty, increasing the pipeline of affordable housing, and ensuring adequate, long-term funding for the community organisations working alongside Tasmanians in financial stress.”

Uniting Tasmania’s executive officer Jeremy Pettet said too often poverty was presented as being due to a person’s individual failings, when in reality it was an entrenched structural issue in society.

“It is not just 3.32 million Australians who don’t have enough money to live,” he said.

“It is 3.32 million Australians without safe and secure housing constantly worried about losing their home, not eating regularly or nutritiously, not heating or cooling their homes and not going to a doctor before it is too late.”