Every day across the country, our Members meet people facing impossible choices between paying rent or buying food, keeping the lights on or covering medical costs. These experiences continue to shape the Society’s national advocacy.

Over the past few months, we have refreshed our federal policy platform, Let’s Build a Fairer Australia!, to ensure it reflects both what our Members are seeing on the ground and the current national policy landscape. The document will now be updated twice each year so that our advocacy remains timely, focused and evidence based.

New focus areas: Children and Energy

Two new policy papers have been added.

The first focuses on Children. We know that poverty in childhood can have lifelong consequences. This paper strengthens our call to measure and reduce child poverty, prioritise children’s wellbeing in national decision-making, and ensure families have adequate income and access to essential services.

The second addresses Energy. A home must be more than shelter; it must be affordable to power. Rising energy costs are placing significant pressure on low-income households. Our new paper calls for targeted bill relief, stronger consumer protections and greater support to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

Continuing our key priorities

Our existing papers have also been updated. We continue to call for a significant expansion of social and affordable housing, with a long-term goal of reaching 10 percent of total housing stock.

While there have been welcome improvements in wages and industrial relations, we are also highlighting the ongoing need to better support people who are long-term unemployed.

In areas where governments have taken action, including Buy Now Pay Later regulation and expanded bulk billing, we have adjusted our calls accordingly, while continuing to monitor developments.

Grounded in the experience of the people we assist and guided by our Vincentian commitment to justice and dignity, the Society will continue to advocate for practical solutions that build a more compassionate and fairer Australia.