It’s not right that in a country as rich as Australia, more than three million people are living in poverty including, on average, more than five students in a classroom of 30, which can mean they are going to school or bed hungry.

Research shows that more than nine in 10 of us agree, that “in Australia, no one should go without basic essentials like food, healthcare, transport and power”.

The single most effective solution to reducing poverty in Australia would be a $75 a week increase in Newstart. Increasing Newstart and linked payments would help reduce poverty for more than one million Australians including about 160,000 children whose parents depend on these payments.

Increasingly, Newstart has become a dilapidated waiting room for the age pension with close to one in four recipients aged 55 years or more. It’s also a de facto disability payment with up to two in five people assessed as having some type of disability and one in four with only a partial capacity to work. Single parents are forced to claim this lower payment when their youngest child turns eight, a fact that leads to parents skipping meals to ensure their children don’t.