Child Poverty, Homelessness and the Exploitation of Children

This chapter places in context the manner in which the law seeks to address issues of child poverty, homelessness and the exploitation of children. Child poverty is an area where politicians have set overly ambitious goals. In 1987, then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, pledged that 'by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty' - a pledge he now regrets having made. The Canadian House of Commons passed a motion in 1989 which stated the goal of eliminating child poverty in Canada by 2000. In 1999, then United Kingdom Prime Minister, Tony Blair, similarly pledged to end child poverty in the annual Beveridge Lecture. While equally ambitious as his Australian counterpart, Blair's speech nevertheless set out the agenda for bringing about this reform, indicating its overlapping aspects by identifying reform of student finance, youth employment programs, welfare law reform, pension reform, child-support law reform, family and child benefit reform and long-term care and housing benefit reform as part of an integrated approach to ending child poverty.