This year Anti-Poverty Week is issuing a Call to Action:
We call on the Australian Government to establish standard measures of poverty and targets to reduce it.
We urge all Australians, community groups, businesses and organisations to advocate and work with government for this change.
Poverty in Australia is estimated at 1 in 7 (3.7 million) people and 1 in 6 children (757,000). This is based on a poverty line of 50% of median household after-tax income of $584 a week for a single adult and $1,226 a week for a couple with two children.¹
These are unofficial measures of poverty in Australia with the Australian Government having no official measurement and are based on income only.
Around the world, 156 countries have official poverty measures which are either an official income measure, a multidimensional measure or both.² A multidimensional index includes measures such as health, education, basic standards of living, employment and other relevant dimensions of poverty.³
The Government must legislate an official poverty measures for Australia. This should include a monetary and multidimensional measure and be publicly reported on annually with sufficient resourcing of the Australian Bureau of Statistics for necessary data.
The adoption of an official measure of poverty has been recommended many times by the Australian Department of Social Security’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.⁴
The Anti-Poverty Week Call to Action for 2026 was developed following last year’s evaluation survey in consultation with the national facilitating group as well as state and territory co-chairs. Calls to Action in future years will look to include targets to reduce poverty.
¹ Poverty In Australia 2025: Overview, ACOSS UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership, October 2025
² Beyond numbers: Why measuring poverty matters, Brotherhood of St Laurence, 20/8/24
³ How to build a National Multidimensional Poverty Index, United Nations Development Program, 8/7/19
⁴ Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee 2025 Report to Government, Department of Social Security, p7