This year, Anti-poverty Week runs from 11 to 17 October and ends on the United Nations day for the eradication of poverty. Yet, for the 3.7 million Australians living in poverty, including one in seven adults and one in six children, that goal remains far too distant. Even more heartbreaking are the human stories which sit behind these lives. Like most of my colleagues here, I receive weekly reports of people struggling to make ends meet on low incomes or income support. I hear about the almost impossible challenge of finding a place to live, navigating a punitive employment services system, raising a family amid mounting costs and accessing and affording even basic health care.

A major driver of poverty in Australia is the continued inadequacy of unemployment payments. Decades of neglect by governments of both persuasions have left JobSeeker well below the poverty line. No wonder recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that people receiving JobSeeker are up to 10 times more likely to die than those not receiving welfare support. How can that be acceptable in one of the wealthiest countries in the world? How is it acceptable that at least 3,000 more unemployed Australians die each year than could be the case? Make no mistake: this is purposeful. Yes, the Reserve Bank and governments believe unemployment must sit between 4.5 and five per cent to keep inflation stable, but that equates to almost 700,000 people forced onto a poverty payment that governments have consistently been too heartless to lift.

Nearly 40 years ago, Bob Hawke pledged that no child would live in poverty by 1990. While the government prioritised this, the country made some progress by reducing the child poverty rate by 30 per cent, but focus drifted, and today it's back up to one in six. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again. This all comes down to priorities. If we choose to prioritise something, we can afford to make it happen, because Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, with the federal government spending close to a trillion dollars this financial year. Plus, we know what would help reduce poverty in Australia. Organisations such as ACOSS, Economic Justice Australia and the Antipoverty Centre have repeatedly outlined practical solutions. For instance, the government should lift the lowest income support payments to ensure these payments aren't poverty by design. This alone would do much of the heavy lifting on poverty reduction.

The government should also introduce and improve income support supplements for those facing additional costs, including sole parents, people with disability and renters. Moreover, instead of planning for a permanent unemployed class, the government and the RBA should commit to a goal of genuinely full employment and ensure there are enough jobs and paid hours of work for all people who want and need them. The government should also replace the cruel and ineffective employment services system with services that reliably and genuinely help people to find work. Remember the Commonwealth Ombudsman recently found that the mutual obligation system was used to inflict high percentages of incorrect decisions and potentially catastrophic penalties on welfare recipients, with minimal oversight or consequences for those responsible, and the much lauded relaunch of the system appears to be little more than a rebranding exercise on the government's part.

Further action the government could take on poverty reduction would be to set and fund clear social housing targets to provide homes where the market fails to do so and to strengthen rental protections including against excessive rent increases and eviction into homelessness. Adjusting our priorities in this way would remind Australians that their government is there to work in their interests and to provide support and care where for too long there's been a neglect. No wonder there's so much community discontent. Taken together, these measures would substantially reduce poverty, improve quality of life for millions of Australians and deliver broader social benefits through better health, better education and better community outcomes. Please, let's get this done.