Introduction

Two of the principal aims of poverty research are to identify who is poor and to quantify the extent of poverty – in total and among specific groups. These tasks are important because they establish the scope of the problem, highlight where action is needed to address it and can be used to assess the impact of those actions. The estimates provide the basis for examining the association between poverty and such factors as age, family structure, labour force status, health or disability status, migrant status and location. These associations point to some of the causes of poverty, as well as some of its consequences, but these important topics require additional research.

A key component of any poverty study is a poverty line. This provides a benchmark that is used to identify who is poor according to whether income is below or above the line. Government concern about the accuracy and usefulness of poverty lines has not prevented community sector agencies from using them – and the poverty rates derived from them – to draw attention to the issue of poverty and pressure governments to do more about it. In 2007, for example, a consortium of community sector agencies released the report A fair go for all Australians: International comparisons 2007 that provided details of poverty in Australia and highlighted the failings of successive governments to address poverty effectively (ACOSS, 2007a).

In an update of those findings, it was noted that:

One of Australia's oldest welfare agencies, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, was established during the Great Depression with the goal of ending social injustice by fighting for an Australia free of poverty.