ACOSS Annual Report 2024

Major Campaigns

The Voice Referendum

In the lead-up to the Voice Referendum, ACOSS partnered with the Fred Hollows Foundation, ANTAR and Oxfam Australia to launch the Allies for Uluru Coalition in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. At the time of the referendum, the Allies for Uluru Coalition consisted of over 300 organisations committed to cross-sector collaboration in support of the Voice to Parliament. It organised joint training sessions, distributed resources and convened action opportunities in support of the ‘yes’ vote.

In the days following the devastating result of the Voice Referendum, ACOSS knew it was critical that the community sector not only committed to continuing to back First Nations-led calls for self-determination and justice, but also that we ensured our own practices and partnerships respected First Nations people’s voices, leadership and right to self-determination. The ACOSS and the COSS network therefore asked community sector organisations to sign a Community Sector Statement of Solidarity reaffirming their commitment to true allyship. Over 230 individuals signed the statement, which was later delivered to First Nations community-controlled members.

Raise the Rate: Lifting incomes so everyone can cover the basics

Alongside hundreds of members and supporters, ACOSS’s Raise the Rate for Good campaign continued to call for the JobSeeker rate and related income-support payments to be lifted.

In the lead-up to the May 2024 Federal Budget, ACOSS mobilised prominent individuals to publicly voice their support for an increase to income support. In the two weeks prior to the Budget, we released a letter signed by over 700 advocates and leaders from business, unions, philanthropy, academia and the community sector. Critically, 26 members of the Federal Parliament went on the record supporting an urgent increase to Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, and related payments at the 2024 Federal Budget.

Fair Fast Inclusive Climate Campaign

With the support of more than 114 community organisations, ACOSS developed and launched the community sector’s Blueprint Framework for Fair, Fast, and Inclusive Climate Change Action. The campaign aims to guide Federal Government climate change policy to ensure that – as well as reducing greenhouse emissions – it supports people and communities experiencing disadvantage to benefit from the transition to a clean economy and increases their resilience to climate change impacts.

The 2024 Federal Budget

ACOSS’s Budget Priorities Statement (BPS) 2024-25 was a detailed submission to the Treasurer on the 2024-25 Federal Budget. It focused on lifting income-support payments, achieving and sustaining full employment, removing the Stage 3 tax cuts, and fair, fast and inclusive climate change action. Recommendations were informed by the views of members via policy network meetings and formed a platform for advocacy in the lead-up to the May Budget. Senior policy staff briefed key government ministers and departmental officials on Budget recommendations, and a briefing session was also held for media prior to the submission’s public release.

Major Impacts

We played a direct and significant role in achieving the following outcomes under our Five Year Impact Strategy 2023-2028

Participation and Agency

Strong support for a Yes vote in the Voice Referendum with over 230 organisations signing the Community Sector Statement of Solidarity Community Sector Statement of Solidarity.
Over 1000 people with lived experience of poverty engaged in Commonwealth Parliamentary and Government processes and public commentary.
People with lived experience consulted or participating in the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, the Review of Employment Services and the Department of Employment’s Parents Advisory Group.
People with lived experience directly involved in research including the ACOSS National Heat Survey and the Cost-of-Living Surveys.
The Robodebt Royal Commission highlighted the need for greater participation by people with lived experience and backed ACOSS’s call for a client council to advise Services Australia, which is in progress.

Income Support and Housing

A stronger social safety net for over 2 million people with increases to Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, and Parenting Payment Single.
The abolition of Cashless Debit Card and phasing out of Compulsory Income Management empowering about 50,000 people.
Partnership with Government to drive cultural change in Services Australia following Robodebt and continued pressure for accountability for those involved in inflicting harm on over 430,000 people.
Commitment to build 30,000 new social or affordable homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund.
First increase to Rent Assistance in 30 years.

Employment

Improvements to automated payment suspensions in employment services, potentially protecting about 250,000 people from threats to income.
Influenced the Hill Report on employment services which recommends a major overhaul of employment services.
The transformation of ParentsNext, benefiting about 60,000 parents via creation of a new, voluntary employment program for parents.

Community Services

More resourcing for community service organisations valued at $560 million over 4 years.
Improvements to Commonwealth indexation arrangements worth $4 billion over 4 years.
A primary leadership role in the DSS Community Sector Advisory Group and development of the NFP Blueprint for future reform of the charitable sector.

Climate and Energy

Increased support for Fair, Fast and Inclusive Climate Change action, now supported by more than 100 climate and community organisations.
About 60,000 social housing properties receiving energy performance upgrades.
Growing cross-sector support for large scale investment in energy performance upgrades for all housing, with first focus on low-income housing.

Tax and Revenue

A more equitable package of Stage 3 tax cuts, delivering more help to 11.5 million modest income earners, including 5.8 million women.

Highlights and Impacts - What we achieved

Participation and agency for people directly impacted

ACOSS continued to advocate for government decision-making processes to involve greater representation and inclusion of people directly impacted by poverty and inequality. We pushed for increased participation in service design and delivery, as well as more support for those affected to advocate for change and share their experiences with decision-makers. Through its Enable and Amplify Program, ACOSS also directly supported people to share their stories with local members of parliament, and traditional and social media, and to advocate directly through meetings with politicians and other key decision makers.

Engaging and collaborating through campaign alliances

We collaborated in major campaign alliances to deliver better outcomes for people on lower incomes facing poverty and inequalities:

Allies for Uluru, a coalition of more than 275 community, non-government and corporate organisations supporting the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. alliesforuluru.antar.org.au/
Change the Record, calling for reduction in the over-representation of First Nations people in prison. changetherecord.org.au
Close the Gap Campaign, which aims to close the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. closethegap.org.au/
Climate Action Network Australia, a network of civil society organisations calling for better climate solutions to protect the environment and build a fairer and healthier Australia. cana.net.au/
Renew Australia for All, a cross-sector collaboration calling for homes to be powered by affordable clean energy. renewaustraliaforall.org
For Every Child Campaign, calling for full funding for public schools where 80% of young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are learning. foreverychild.au/
Activate Australia’s Skills Campaign, to unlock the skills of people with overseas qualifications to improve employment outcomes. activateaustralia.org.au
Healthy Homes for Renters, a national campaign to deliver minimum energy performance standards for people in rental homes. healthyhomes.org.au/
Everybody’s Home Campaign, a national campaign to fix the housing crisis, calling for more social and affordable housing and immediate relief for those in chronic rental stress. everybodyshome.com.au/

Spreading the word: our collective impact

Poverty and Inequality Partnership

Partnering to inquire and illuminate: ACOSS and UNSW Sydney The Poverty and Inequality Partnership

In the seventh year of our partnership, we released the latest updates to our Inequality in Australia series, Inequality in Australia 2023: Overview and Inequality in Australia 2024: Who is affected and how. These reports provide an updated analysis of income and wealth inequality in Australia.

Additionally, we launched our wealth calculator, which complements our existing income calculator. This interactive tool allows users to compare their household wealth with the rest of Australia. We also introduced the first report in our community attitudes series, Community attitudes towards poverty and inequality 2023. This report provides an attitudinal survey that will serve as a baseline for future comparisons.

The issues we tackled

Securing quality essential services for all

Employment opportunities for all, with no one left behind

Affordable housing for people on low incomes

Self-determination and justice for First Nations’ people

A key commitment under our Strategic Plan, Impact Priority 1, is that we will succeed if ‘The community sector builds support for self-determination and justice for First Nations peoples including support for Voice, Treaty and Truth, enabling participation of First Nations peoples in decisions that directly affect the outcomes for their communities.’

In line with this commitment and ACOSS’s long history of allyship with First Nations peoples and organisations, we continued our strong support for the Uluru process and a Voice to Parliament, including facilitating a dialogue between First Nations leaders and ACOSS leaders about how the sector could support a ‘yes’ vote in the historic Voice campaign.

In the wake of the devastating referendum result, ACOSS and the COSS Network established and sought sign-on to a Community Sector Statement of Solidarity with First Nations Communities. This statement invited sector organisations to reaffirm their commitment to true allyship by taking measures such as developing and adhering to partnership principles that limit competition with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, which are best placed to develop policy solutions and deliver services for their communities.

Following the referendum and after direct consultation with our First Nations member organisations, we also held the first annual ACOSS Board and First Nations Member Roundtable Dialogue, through which we:

Thus far under the ACOSS First Nations Solidarity Pledge, we have:

A fairer economy and tax system

Impact Priority workshops

The ACOSS staff team engaged in a series of Impact Priority workshops in June. An integral part of our annual planning and impact measurement cycle, these workshops provided an opportunity to build a strong shared understanding of our priority outcomes, workshop planned activities and assess resource implications.

Impact Measurement Framework

We track our success in achieving our Impact Priorities using our Impact Measurement Framework (IMF), which enables us to gather and share evidence to evaluate and demonstrate our impact. We have now embedded the IMF in our key reporting documents and impact reports.