Australia has a wide gap in educational outcomes between children in poverty and their better-off peers. A new study indicates why reducing child poverty is the best way to lift our educational game.
- Professor, College of Business, Government & Law, Flinders University
Extracurricular activities help children from low-income suburbs close the gap between them and their better-off peers. But subsidies for these activities are patchy and often limited to sport.
A study has found children between the ages of 8 and 14 who take care of a family member with a drug addiction or mental illness aren’t very happy at, and don’t feel all that safe, at school.
Yes, most jobseekers who receive Newstart payments are also eligible for other benefits. But in many cases this is just a few dollars a fortnight to help with expenses such as electricity bills.
Children growing up in the most disadvantaged suburbs also lack the social opportunities to develop skills and aspirations that would improve their prospects in life.
Christian Porter said Australia’s welfare system ‘was costing over 100% of all income tax raised’ under Labor after the GFC, and that it’s ‘around 80%’ under the Coalition. Is that true?
Is the Coalition right to say that, at any one time, there is around $3.5 billion of debt to the Commonwealth due to fraud, non-compliance or misreporting in the welfare system?
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said that the level of unemployment payment hasn’t been increased in Australia in over 20 years. Is that true?
Radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell told the Q&A audience that refugees are costing $100 million a year in welfare payments and have a 97% unemployment rate. Is that accurate?
A new report shows that hourly wages of workers whose parents had a tertiary degree are significantly higher, on average, than hourly wages of workers whose parents have lesser qualifications.
Implying that 80% of Australian income tax goes straight towards the welfare bill overlooks the fact that a large proportion of income taxpayers benefit from social security.
Election FactCheck is checking key claims in political advertisements. Here we look at the “If Tony Abbott Wins, You Lose” ad from Labor. Families will lose the Schoolkids Bonus The Coalition has made…
When it comes to welfare spending in the budget, the federal government has given with one hand and taken with another. Funding for support of disability services (NDIS) and schools the (Gonski reforms…
The 2012 federal budget has been described as “a big taxing, big spending budget” with a big focus on welfare. The first spending measure to be legislated and to come into effect is the new Schoolkids…
The Treasurer Wayne Swan has described the 2012 Budget yesterday as “a Labor budget to its bootstraps”, and commentators have variously seen it as “a big taxing, big spending budget, including a big increase…
Most of the reforms proposed by the Henry Tax Review appear to have died a quiet death. In his recent article on inequality in The Monthly, Treasurer Wayne Swan does not mention the Henry Review at all…
One of the most hotly debated features of Budget 2011 was the freezing of thresholds for some family payments. This has been described positively as a “war on middle class welfare” and negatively as punishing…
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