As Australians prepare to vote in 2007, they face important choices over the future fairness of their country. Australia’s headline figures of economic growth and low official unemployment stand in stark contrast to the daily reality of two million Australians who live in poverty. Despite economic prosperity, one in ten Australians struggle to pay for...

This report shows that the number of Australians living in poverty has increased over the past 10 years. Using an international poverty line of 50 per cent of median income, the numbers increased from 7.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent of the population between 1994 and 2004, or nearly two million Australians. This measure...

This report details the results of community consultations in all States and Territories and telephone polling on what Australians think are the essentials to make Australia fair. As Australia experiences a period of economic growth, what impact this change has had on fairness? There is concern around trends that challenge Australia's ideal as the land...

The focus of this paper is the training and education needs of jobless Australians with limited education and skills: more than half those jobless people affected by the Welfare to Work policy have Year 10 qualifications or less, including more than 60 per cent of jobless Parenting Payment recipients and people with disabilities. This greatly...

This annual survey received responses from 857 community services across Australia in the 12 months to July 2006. The report finds that community services are under strain trying to meet the needs of disadvantaged Australians. Lack of funding or resources meant one in every sixteen people who accessed a service were turned away from community...