Sharing Children’s Voices from Port Hedland
Faye Foai is a youth mentor at South Hedland’s Youth Involvement Council (YIC) and her advocacy through the End Child Poverty Campaign (ECP) helps ensure the voices of regional youth are represented in policy discussions and decision-making.
The ECP team visited Port Hedland in July 2026. Available data shows no issue with child poverty in the Pilbara region, which is one of Australia’s richest, but children living there tell a very different story.
In the video Faye shares her experiences of working with those children - of them being hungry, homeless and turned away from school for issues that can be traced back to living in poverty.
We want those voices heard by our decision makers, so on September 14 will take them to Parliament House so that politicians can listen to their powerful stories.
VIDEO: Calls for Australia to introduce poverty line to assess cost-of-living crisis
VIDEO: Calls for Australia to introduce poverty line to assess cost-of-living crisis
Call for Australia to commit to poverty line Presented by Keane Bourke
Powerful Call for Change: Experts and Advocates Demand Australia Commit to Eradicating Child Poverty
New Report Reveals Australians' Strong Stance Against Child Poverty: Here's What You Need to Know
New Data Reveals 83% of Australians Demand Action on Child Poverty—Will the Government Listen?
Australians Back Action to Track and Address Child Poverty
• Four in five Australians (83%) want the Federal Government to regularly measure and report on poverty rates in Australia.
• An overwhelming majority of Australians (81%) agree that income support payments should be set at a rate that does not cause any child to live in poverty.
• Australians are highly concerned that Australia has a high child poverty rate compared to other developed countries (69%), and about the effects of this on health and lifespan (83%) as well as education and employment (85%).
• One in six Australian children (about 761,000 children) live in poverty according to research from ACOSS and UNSW.
• The OECD finds that Australia’s youth poverty rate is the 13th-highest among member nations, surpassing the UK, Germany and Canada.
Majority of Australians Back Action to Track and Address Child Poverty
Australians Call for Boosted Income Support to End Child Poverty, New Australia Institute Report Shows
MOR Framework
Material, Opportunity, and Relational Support: The Three Pillars to Eradicate Child Poverty
We asked children how they experienced poverty. Here are 6 changes needed now
Children Speak Out on Poverty: Heartbreaking Stories of Hunger, Shame, and Stress

