Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction: We do not have this data available for only households with children prior to the 2018-19 figures, which were released in February 2020. I can advise that for all families, including those without children, there have been small increases in the following economising behaviours in the survey which covers the period from mid-2017 to mid-2019: cutting back on fresh fruit and vegetables, feeling cold to save on heating costs, repairing or replacing broken or damaged appliances, and visits to the doctors. The most significant of these is postponing visits to the doctor, which is why we have already made changes to improve access to GPs by reducing the cost for up to 540,000 community services card holders and making visits free for 56,000 13-year-olds. I can also advise that there were fewer families who bought less or cheaper meat, postponed visits to the dentists, and went without local trips. I would say that it is important that in looking at these individual items the DEP-17 index is not the way that experts would say is an effective way to monitor and understand the levels of material hardship.