poverty, it still should not be causing the number of people living under the poverty line to rise as rapidly as estimated. This suggests there is something seriously wrong with either the measures of poverty being used, or the welfare system itself. Professor Henderson’s original method of determining the poverty line is the most likely problem in Australia’s measurement of poverty. In fact Professor Henderson’s original method has been critisised by many Australian economists, and it has been said that maybe it is the actual year in which our poverty line was set which is the problem. 1966 was a boom year, where GDP per head, and average household income net of taxes both rose by more than 40%, and household saving per head more than doubled. This could mean that the entire method, which is used to determine Australia’s poverty line, is incorrect.The Henderson Report also reported that:The urgent need for a national social research and policy institute to insure that a continuous research program over a wide field reveals to the public and to those responsible for policy the problems and needs of those who are poor and deprived. Then the ‘hidden people’ may be discovered and the ‘forgotten people’ remembered. (Henderson 1975)Although unlikely, if it is correct that since the Henderson Report in 1975, the percentage of Australians living under the poverty line has continued to rise, then it is true that as noted in the report, most of Australia’s poverty is indeed hidden. The ‘hidden’ nature of poverty in Australia may be the major contributing factor of why the problem of poverty has not been addressed. If the Australian public were aware of the increasing rates of poverty in Australia then there would definitely be increasing pressure put on the government to alleviate the problem. One aspect, which contributes to poverty and is very difficult to avoid, is discrimin...
