UN report paints poor picture of child poverty in Australia

from Australia Broadcasting Corporation

Reporter: Paula Kruger
ELEANOR HALL: Politicians may be talking up the economy but there are warnings today that Australia's youngest citizens are not reaping the benefits.

Welfare agencies are calling today for a national plan to tackle child poverty in Australia in reaction to a United Nations report on the well-being of children in the world's wealthiest countries.

It revealed that nearly 10 per cent of Australian children live in a household without an adult in paid employment, one of the highest rates in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), as Paula Kruger reports.

PAULA KRUGER: In the past couple of days there have been at least two reports showing a growth in Australian wages and there are no shortage of figures that more generally show economic good times.

But today there was some sobering news from the United Nations Children Fund, which has done a study on the well being of children in the world's richest countries.

None of the countries surveyed can get much comfort from the report's findings, but of particular concern to Australia is that 10 per cent of young people are living in a household where no adult is in paid employment.

That is the highest rate of all OECD countries except for Hungary.

That is a finding that Gillian Calvert, the NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People, finds distressing.

GILLIAN CALVERT: What we do know, and what the report shows, is that the children who live in poverty come from families where neither parents work. And we do know that work is the best option for helping parents out of poverty.

But only if that work is good work. And that means two things. One, that it's got decent pay, and the other is that it's got decent conditions.

We don't have secure paid maternity leave in Australia. We don't have guaranteed flexible work hours. We don't have reliable access to childcare in all cases.

So unless we start to adjust work to recognise the reality of parents' lives, and in particular poor parents, and unless we provide support for those poor parents to get into the workforce through skills development and training, then we are going to continue, I think, this, if you like, cycle of poverty that goes from one generation to another.

PAULA KRUGER: Andrew Johnson is the Executive Director of ACOSS, the Australian Council of Social Service.

He says the UNICEF study shows the great divide between Australia's haves and have-nots.

ANDREW JOHNSON: What we're seeing is that in outer metropolitan cities, in regional Australia and particularly in Indigenous communities, we need to be doing far more about looking at strategic approaches to lifting people out of poverty.

I think when you ask general Australians what needs to happen to ensure that their fellow citizens aren't doing it tough, they understand that you've got to look across the board at a whole lot of issues. So whether it's health, education, services.

PAULA KRUGER: The New South Wales Commissioner for Children, Gillian Calvert, has called for a national commissioner that will oversee federal policy affecting young Australians.

ACOSS is calling for a national action plan.

ANDREW JOHNSON: What we need to be doing is ensuring that the Government takes a strategic look. Where 22 out of 30 countries in the OECD have a national plan as to how to deal with children living in poverty and their families living in poverty, it's time now for the Federal Government to actually take a lead and to set targets as to how we're going to ensure that these, up to two million Australians who are living in poverty, we are actually having concerted efforts to, during these good economic times, lift them out of their difficult circumstances.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the Executive Director of ACOSS, Andrew Johnson, speaking to Paula Kruger.