If you were relying on welfare to survive, what would you use it for? Rent? Food Medicine? Bills? In 2020, over three million Australians were recorded as living below the poverty line.
Author and TV personality Julie Goodwin, journalist Caleb Bond, and NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong will go on separate immersive journeys into three distinct Australian localities and communities to gain insights into the poverty and disadvantage experienced by so many in Australia, and to see whether they themselves could survive on welfare and low incomes.
Some of the contributors will have pre-existing views of those who live on welfare; others may be in positions to influence welfare policy. For all three, it will be a confronting and emotional experience.
They’ll ask some tough questions, and test some commonly held beliefs. They’ll also have their own views challenged – but how will the experience change them?
In the premiere episode, three contributors will be forced to hand over their credit cards and forgo all access to their current lives.
They’ll travel separately to three different parts of New South Wales where they’ll live for the next nine days. From a disadvantaged inner-city community, to the outer suburbs and a regional area, they’ll have to navigate life on various forms of welfare.
They’ll discover first-hand what things people are forced to live without – things like proper heating, secure and safe accommodation, adequate health care and a decent diet.
Julie Goodwin said:
“When I was invited to be a part of Could You Survive on the Breadline? it was an easy decision. I believe very much in the power of storytelling to facilitate important conversations. I fervently believe that in a first-world country like ours, there is enough for everyone to not just survive, but to thrive. Yet somehow, our resources are not being shared equitably and it is the most vulnerable who end up with the least. Those with the least power, the smallest voices, the fewest opportunities to create real change for themselves. I was privileged to take part in a series that not only addresses these issues of inequality and inequity, but also challenges the damaging and pervasive stereotypes that surround people living in poverty.”
Caleb Bond said:
“I’m an open-minded sort of person and it’s not often you get a chance to properly embed yourself in other people’s lives, particularly when they’re doing it tough. It was certainly a difficult and eye-opening experience. There are people who are genuinely struggling and can’t seem to get the help they need. It was both confronting and not all that surprising for different reasons. You’d like to think governments spend our taxes wisely on those who need help, but I saw waste and bureaucratic incompetence at every turn. I suppose I came with a set of preconceived notions, some of which were cemented and others that were challenged. I’d like to think the viewers can go on a similar journey. Some of it is not all that surprising, but much of the reality is beyond words.”
Jenny Leong said:
“For years I have worked with people living in public housing and communities impacted by poverty, and so participating in this documentary was another way to amplify the challenging experiences people face. Living in substandard housing with little money and a lack of control wasn’t easy, but I knew it was for a limited time. For so many, including those I met, this insecurity and uncertainty is their reality – there is no end in sight. It’s critical that we expose this reality: too often people live in poverty because of choices made by those in power. These choices have real consequences and they do real damage to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. The system is so broken that it can be impossible to survive within it, and it is most certainly impossible to thrive – and that’s heartbreaking, because it doesn’t have to be that way.”
