If you thought you saw Brisbane’s Lord Mayor selling magazines in Queen Street today you weren’t seeing things.

Graham Quirk joined in a campaign for Anti Poverty Week which aims to highlight financial hardship and emotional trauma in the community.

Taylor Bunnag reports.

TRANSCRIPT

The Lord Mayor was on the hard sell today but it was for a good cause.

He’s one of three Queensland Mayors who’ve teamed up with the Big Issue in a bid to help tackle poverty issues both in Australia and overseas.

Graham Quirk, Brisbane Lord Mayor: “Homelessness in Australia is a major issue and it’s a recognition that we’re there to support people that are down on their luck.”

The Big Issue is a not-for-profit magazine that’s helped more than 4,000 disadvantaged sellers since it began in 1996.

Norm Frame, who’s sold the magazine for over three years, says the extra money has helped him survive.

Norm Frame, Big Issue Vendor: “I live in a little tiny caravan park out in the northern suburbs and I see day to day struggles where people are just trying to keep a caravan roof over their head.”

But it’s not just people like Norm who are struggling with a new report released by Anglicare Australia showing that more and more people are struggling to make ends meet.

The report says 45,000 families who use Anglicare’s emergency relief services don’t have enough money to adequately feed their families.

But a statistic that’s even more alarming, is that one in 10 households have children going without food for an entire day on a regular basis.

Those who’ve been there say there’s no easy answer to solving the big issue of poverty.

Norm Frame, Big Issue Vendor: “Honestly I can’t answer that, because it should have been fixed by now.”

Taylor Bunnag. QUT News.