According to the World Bank, poverty is an inability to attain a minimal standard of living and subsist (that is obtain sufficient food, shelter and clothing to remain secure and well). Like quality of life poverty is a relative term and is linked to ideas about inequality. As Saunders (1996) notes, for the Australian context, relative poverty means 'lacking the resources required to be able to participate in the lifestyle and consumption patterns enjoyed by other Australians. To be relatively poor is thus to be forced to live on the margins of society, to be excluded from the normal spheres of consumption and activity which together define social participation and national identity'.