We know WA Australia is pro-prosperity — our economy grew 3.4 per cent over the past year — almost double that of other States and the strongest in the nation. But are we anti-poverty enough?

It’s important to be clear that poverty is the outcome of systems and policy decisions that fail to look after people, not of personal failure. And in one of the richest States in the world, poverty is not inevitable.

Today, one in seven West Australians — around 420,000 people, including a quarter who are children — are living below the poverty line, defined by the OECD as 50 per cent of median income. We use this definition, as Australia is one of the only developed countries in the world that does not have its own.

According to new data from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, almost 14 per ce

See Full Page