In 2022, when Anthony Albanese was making his pitch to voters to change the country by changing the government, I was briefly encouraged by one aspect of Labor’s platform.

Albanese pledged a new social contract for Australia, with “no one held back and no one left behind”.

Three years later, as I found myself receiving jobseeker for the first time in two decades and with just $45.95 a week left after paying my landlord, I suddenly realised I was feeling both held back, and a long way behind my employed peers.

Foodbank’s report on food insecurity released on Monday has again brought the lived experience of poverty back into the spotlight.

There are up to 900,000 people in Australia asked to make ends meet on around $58 a day. That is a tough enough ask for those in social housing; in the private rental market, it is a cruel joke bestowed upon people who find themselves unemployed in........

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