ACOSS develops and promotes socially and economically responsible public policy and action by government, community and business, by drawing on the direct experiences of people affected by poverty and inequality, and the expertise of our diverse member base.
Our policy agenda focuses on those issues that affect people living on low incomes and experiencing disadvantage. Our core aims are to reduce poverty and increase opportunity, connection, and participation.
Key Policy Areas
ACOSS’ policy agenda focuses on the needs of low income and disadvantaged Australians with the core aims of reducing poverty and increasing social inclusion and participation.
Our work is focused on the following priority areas:
Community services help people experiencing poverty, hardship, discrimination and disadvantage. Community services include crisis accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence, emergency relief to help people address basic needs in times of crisis, and food relief. Community services provide financial counselling, child care, health clinics, aged care and help develop vibrant, multicultural communities. Community services have experienced deep funding cuts and are struggling to help everyone who needs their support. We need government to ensure a secure future for these much-needed services.
We need to reduce extreme weather events by acting on climate change and when heatwaves, fires, floods and storms hit, we should work together to help each other recover. Climate change is threatening people’s homes, livelihoods, health, quality of life, employment, and the cost of living. But fossil fuel companies are continuing to profit with the help of subsidies from governments and tax avoidance. We need governments to take effective action on climate change and to support people, communities and community sector organisations to become more resilient to extreme weather and natural disasters. No one should have to suffer extreme heat without escape or have to go to bed freezing cold. While some home owners can afford solar panels and to make their homes more energy efficient, people on low incomes are struggling with electricity bills, going cold in winter and sweltering through summer heatwaves. Government should support people on low incomes, especially renters, to have solar, battery storage and more efficient homes so they can reduce their electricity bills and cope in extreme weather.
ACOSS economics and tax policy work is concentrated upon policies that will strengthen economic development and growth, meaning that people on low incomes benefit from more jobs and improved incomes. Another major focus is the reform of the taxation system in order to raise public revenue for the benefits and services people need.
ACOSS advocates for full employment and a fairer system of mutual obligations and employment services and our current priorities for reform are in the ACOSS Budget Priorities briefing. ACOSS believes there is an historic opportunity to achieve full employment, where the vast majority of people seeking paid employment can readily find a job. To reach full employment in the 21st century labour market, attention must also be paid to Australia’s high levels of underemployment and insecure employment, and over-reliance on temporary migrants to fill entry-level jobs. To ensure that people unemployed long-term can take advantage of the jobs available as we move towards full employment, we propose a flexible, community and employer- driven Jobs and Training Offer. Find out more about our vision for full employment in the Jobs and Skills Summit position paper. ACOSS believes that employment services need to be redesigned so that their primary purpose is to assist people to secure employment, rather than enforce compliance with payment requirements. ACOSS advocacy is focused on ensuring that: ACOSS will continue to monitor the implementation of mutual obligations in Workforce Australia to ensure that it does not continue to impose onerous requirements and unfair penalties on people required to use employment services. Read more about ACOSS advocacy on Employment and Mutual Obligations See more ACOSS publications and reports on Employment and Mutual Obligations
Everyone should have enough to cover the basics. But right now, people struggling to get by on the $46 a JobSeeker rate are being forced to make heartbreaking decisions between paying their rent, putting enough food on the table or getting the medical services they need. We need to raise the rate of working age payments to at least $70 a day so that everyone has enough to cover the basics while going through tough times. For too long, the base rate of JobSeeker payment has been below the poverty line, with Youth Allowance being even lower. In 2020, the Coronavirus Supplement temporarily increased income support above the poverty line and changed lives. It meant that people were finally able to keep up with rent and bills, and access the essentials like prescription glasses, a working fridge and dental care. For many people trying to survive on $46 a day means going without medication and medical care, couch surfing, living in a car or sleeping rough. We need to Raise the Rate for Good so that everyone has enough to cover the basics of life, like a roof overhead and food on the table. The key recommendations to fix our income support system are: Abolish mandatory cashless debit cards and income management.
ACOSS works to ensure that the needs of people on low incomes are high on the agenda of health reform in Australia, through our involvement with our members in the health sector. We also work with the network of Councils of Social Service in Australia to advance a social determinants of health approach in our policy and advocacy, recognising that people on low incomes are often less able to access timely, affordable health care; experience higher rates of poor health, particularly oral and mental health; and that poor health can in turn exacerbate socio-economic disadvantage and exclusion.
We all need a home. None of us can go about our lives, raise a family, go to work or stay healthy, without a stable and safe place to call home. Our housing system should make sure everyone has a secure, safe roof over their head. A good government would make sure everybody has a secure home. We need government to provide better protection for those of us who rent, to make homes more affordable, accessible and permanent. We need a strong safety net of social and public housing for people who can’t afford private rent so that they are not forced on to the streets. We need government to end unfair tax breaks for wealthy housing investors and to put that money into fixing our broken housing system. Currently, people get tax deductions when they borrow a lot of money to invest in homes to rent. This drives up the price of housing for everyone. The tax system contributes to Australia having among the highest housing costs and highest household debt in the world. Government should invest directly in more housing for people on the lowest incomes, and encourage super funds and individuals to invest in new affordable homes, instead of driving up the price of existing homes.
ACOSS develops and promotes socially and economically responsible public policy and action by government, community and business, by drawing on the direct experiences of people affected by poverty and inequality, and the expertise of our diverse member base. Our policy agenda focuses on those issues that affect people living on low incomes and experiencing disadvantage. Our core aims are to reduce poverty and increase opportunity, connection, and participation. As well as our core areas, ACOSS maintains an active interest in the following policy areas and supports initiatives to address the impacts of policy reform on people experiencing poverty and disadvantage.