How We Work

The NCCA gathers together Churches and Christian communities which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures. We commit to deepen our relationship with each other and to work together towards the fulfilment of common witness, proclamation and service, to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

For more than 20 years Anti-Poverty Week has operated in Australia around the 17th of October, the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The purpose is to help Australians understand poverty and to take action collectively to end it.

Anti-Poverty Week 2026 will run from Sunday 11 October to Saturday 17 October

See the range of public events in capital and regional cities around Australia in the Anti-Poverty Week Calendar.

Anit-Poverty Week welcomes any events that draw attention to the impact of poverty and ways to act to end poverty in Australia. See their comprehensive list of Ideas for Activities including:

  • online lectures, debates, workshops and conferences
  • in-person panel discussions, lunches, breakfasts
  • drop-in advice, training and information sessions
  • virtual competitions, exhibitions and tours

Submit your event or activity HERE.

This year Anti-Poverty Week is issuing a Call to Action: 

to the Australian Government to establish standard measures of poverty and targets to reduce it.

to urge all Australians, community groups, businesses and organisations to advocate and work with government for this change. 

Poverty in Australia is estimated at 1 in 7 (3.7 million) people and 1 in 6 children (757,000). This is based on a poverty line of 50% of median household after-tax income of $584 a week for a single adult and $1,226 a week for a couple with two children.

These are unofficial measures of poverty in Australia with the Australian Government having no official measurement and are based on income only.  

Around the world, 156 countries have official poverty measures which are either an official income measure, a multidimensional measure or both. A multidimensional index includes measures such as health, education, basic standards of living, employment and other relevant dimensions of poverty.

The Government must legislate an official poverty measures for Australia. This should include a monetary and multidimensional measure and be publicly reported on annually with sufficient resourcing of the Australian Bureau of Statistics for necessary data.   

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