Low unemployment means less poverty - PM

from Perth Today

THE low unemployment rate is evidence that poverty is not rising, Prime Minister John Howard says, despite a welfare report which suggests otherwise.

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) report compared Australia to the rest of the developed world, on issues including education, health and housing.

Using an international measure that defines the poverty line as 50 per cent of median income, the report found the number of Australians living in poverty rose from 7.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent of the population between 1994 and 2004.

But Mr Howard said he could not accept everything in the report.

"I have difficulty with their measurements of poverty," he said.

"It is logic that if there are fewer people out of work there must be less poverty - the greatest driver of poverty is people without jobs."

And with such a low unemployment rate, poverty could not be rising, he said.

"If we now have an unemployment rate that is 4.3 per cent compared with a rate of 8.5 per cent 11-½ years ago, the logic of that compels you to the view that there is at least some lesser incidence of poverty in our community."

But Mr Howard said he knew there were still people struggling and living below the poverty line.

"I don't pretend for a moment that there isn't more that can be done but it's just altogether too glib for people to say, `oh well, poverty keeps rising despite the prosperity of the country'."

Families Minister Mal Brough questioned the way poverty was measured in the report, saying it does not accurately represent reality.

"I think that you can categorically say that the number of Australians that are in work, that are earning more money and paying less tax, has increased, therefore people have a better chance of being independent" Mr Brough said on ABC radio.

Mr Brough said there were still people living below the poverty line, but that had not increased during the Howard Government's reign.

"There is no doubt whatsoever that there are far fewer Australians struggling today," he said.

"I look at my own electorate and I can see families today who are doing much better than they were in 1996 - that is without a shadow of a doubt.

"But that's not to say there aren't people still struggling and the way to do that is to keep the economy strong."