Australia's poor will become poorer

The gap between Australia's richest and poorest grew by 13 per cent over the past decade and is projected to jump by a further 10 per cent over the next 10 years, according to new research.

The report, by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, finds that households in the bottom 20 per cent of incomes saw their living standards  - or disposable income - grow by about 15 per cent over the past decade, while the top 20 per cent enjoyed growth of 28 per cent.

“The top quintile of income earners has basically experienced double the growth of the lowest, so that’s not feasible in our view,” explained Anglicare Australia’s Executive Director, Kasy Chambers, “As Leonard Cohen sings, ‘everybody knows the fight is fixed, the poor stay poor and the rich get rich.’ That is true of the past 10 years of vigorous growth. What this report tells us, however, is that the poor will not just stay poor. They are on track to get poorer,” she said.