Food insecurity is a hidden and overlooked socio-economic problem in Australia. The data gap is a critical concern in research and practice, as official statistics on food insecurity are neither reliable nor regularly published. 

This paper uses new data on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), an eight-item measure included in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA ) Survey for the first time in 2020. It found roughly 2 million people were food insecure in Australia in 2020 and severe food insecurity is a bigger concern in Australia relative to other OECD countries. South Australia and Queensland were the most food insecure states. 

If the food insecure are not accurately identified, resources would not be appropriately targeted to households and people who are truly food insecure. Therefore, if Australia continues to rely on experience-based food security measures to monitor food security, then a muti-item scale must replace the single item measures. Additionally, rather than using the US measure, an Australia specific measure should be used. Geographic variation on prevalence estimates warrants tailor-made context-specific policies to address issues related to inadequate access to food. Finally, if the critical issue of intra-household hunger is overlooked, food insecure individuals living in apparently food secure households may miss the benefits of public policy.