The reality of poverty laid bare

This Anti-Poverty Week (13-19 October 2024), the St Vincent de Paul Society is partnering 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 will be using lunchboxes to show the scale of child poverty situation in Australia. There will be 60 lunchboxes displayed, of which 10 will be 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.

The financial toll of keeping up with everyday expenses, like rent, energy and transport costs often means there’s no money left to buy groceries - sending too many children to school with an empty lunchbox.

St Vincent de Paul Society’s Tasmanian President Corey McGrath said this Anti-Poverty Week they were speaking up for an end to poverty and give support for a nourished future for all Tasmanian children.

“In Tasmania, our children are experiencing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis,” he 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 that 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.”