South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, asked children and young people about systemic poverty and how it could be addressed. Children and young people were also asked what they knew about the impact of poverty and what they would suggest could be done to help those in South Australia who they know are ‘doing it tough.’  

A series of project engagement activities were undertaken throughout the duration of the project, which ran from December 2018 through to June 2019. These included a poverty survey to which 1145 young people responded, a series of workshops and focus groups attended by 67 children and young people with lived experience of poverty, and a poverty summit attended by more than 200 South Australian school children from Years 10-12, who shared their observations of poverty and their ideas on how it could be tackled by government, schools and the broader community. 

Children and young people’s views on the impact of poverty were examined in relation to three key areas of life: home life, school life, and social life. 

The report outlines the following recommendations: 

1. To demonstrate commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) the South Australian government establish a Child Poverty Expert Group to measure and report annually on a range of income and non-income related poverty indicators and measures that are particularly relevant to children. 

2. The Department of Human Services, Department for Education and South Australian Council of Social Service work collaboratively to develop and implement an audit tool quantifying the cumulative costs of public education at an individual school level and this data be published annually. 

3. Social welfare agencies in receipt of emergency relief funding, financial counsellors and respective peak bodies, advocate to telecommunication providers to expand their hardship programs to systematically offer families with children, home internet vouchers. 

4. Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure provide free Wi-Fi on all SA public transport and increase the number and quality of internet hot spots in public places to support children with no home internet to meet their educational needs. 

5. Government, Feminine Hygiene Industry, and community partners expand the current piecemeal provisions of sanitary product support and develop a free, accessible and non-stigmatising supply and distribution scheme for a range of hygiene and sanitary products. 

6. South Australian Public Transport Authority provide children whose families are in receipt of a school card access to free public transport to enable them to fully participate in school and community activities.