Even in a relatively lucky community like ours, the pockets of underprivilege can run deep.

Right now, hundreds are living without safe and secure housing while thousands are living hand to mouth.

The path to poverty is complex and dynamic. 

It can be paved with rotten luck rather than just bad decisions.

Many of our poor are barely surviving as it is, trying to eke out an existence on $16 an hour in the face of spiralling electricity, rent and other living costs. 

For them, home ownership is a pipe dream.

The minimum wage has less than doubled in the past 20 years, while housing prices have jumped 250 per cent.

It’s these people – the factory workers, the cleaners, the farm labourers – who are increasingly asking for handouts.

People who through no fault of their own are trapped on a poverty treadmill.

This country should not be thrust into the same position as the US, where the working poor can put in 38 hours a week and still not afford basic costs.

We are all closer than we think to despair – a sudden job loss, a family breakdown, a grim diagnosis.

And if such a fate did befall us, we would and should expect the system be capable of helping us back up.