As long as 2.5 million Australians live below the poverty line, and one out of every four are children ... We cannot say the fair go belongs to all, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said in a speech on Australia Day, 2016.
Mr Shorten's claim checks out. The basis for the Opposition Leader's claim comes from a 2014 report commissioned by the Australian Council of Social Service which suggests that 2.55 million Australians live in poverty, with 23.6 per cent of them children. Whilst other research from NATSEM and HILDA found slightly more Australians under the poverty line, with fewer of them children, these reports measure poverty and define children differently, and the numbers are still comparable with data in the report which Mr Shorten uses as the basis for his claim. Experts say that whilst the different reports make slightly different assumptions, all are sound in their methodology. They also said that there are many ways to measure poverty, and there's an element of arbitrariness involved.
Fact check: Are 2.5 million Australians in poverty and are one quarter of them children?
['Bill_Shorten', 'Australia_Day', 'Australia']