THE 2018 Scottish Labour conference opens in Dundee against a backdrop of austerity, local government spending cuts and rising inequality.

In Scotland in 2017, the top 1 per cent of the population owned more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent put together. Over one million people in Scotland are living in poverty, often in households where at least one adult is in work. For many thousands of children, poverty will affect their life chances, health and opportunities.

This is quite simply unacceptable and not what was envisaged when the new Scottish Parliament came into being in 1999.

Donald Dewar, the then first minister, in his opening speech, looked forward to the work of the Scottish Parliament, “when men and women from all over Scotland will meet to work together for a future built on the first principles of social justice.”

Tackling the wealth gap and the unacceptable levels of poverty in our country must be at the heart of those social justice principles.

Devolution and the additional powers that came with the Scotland 2016 Act must be used to further our ambitions for working people. Scottish Labour conference this year has this theme at its heart.

In recent months, along with other sections of civic society in Scotland, we have focused on the impact of child poverty.

But, while the Scottish government has given 2018 the theme of the Year of Young People and there are specific campaigns and proposals for interventions that could really make a difference to young people’s lives, it refuses to move on the simple idea of increasing child benefit payments.

These, along with many other benefits, have not increased since 2015. The powerful Give Me Five campaign, initiated by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and supported by trade unions, churches and charities, has shown that a £5 top-up to child benefit would immediately lift 30,000 Scottish children out of poverty.

The Cost of the School Day campaign by school teachers’ union EIS and CPAG had already highlighted the inequalities perpetuated for children when household income is too low to ensure suitable warm school clothing, school meals or bus fares to get to and from school safely.

The £5-a-week top-up to child benefit, universally applied, would make a massive difference to many families, including those whose income is erratic due to the casualisation of the labour market and irregular employment.

The Scottish government now has the legislative powers to make this one change. It is a chance to take action on those unacceptable levels of poverty in a clear and simple way. The proposal is well supported in wider civic society and meets the social justice aspirations of the Scottish Parliament.

So far, however, the amendments lodged by Labour MSP Mark Griffin have been voted down at the committee stage of the Social Security Bill currently making its way through the Scottish Parliament. Earlier attempts by Labour to raise this issue during the Child Poverty Bill scrutiny were also met with intransigence.

When the Scottish Parliament discusses the Social Security Bill at its final stages, we will again be arguing that the Give Me Five campaign has a very strong case. It speaks for many in Scotland and Scottish Labour will be voting for an amendment that would deliver that extra £5 a week to so many families. There is still time for the SNP government to change its mind and use the powers available to it to make a difference.

In Scottish Labour’s view, there are a number of other measures that could be taken within the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

We are campaigning alongside Jeremy Corbyn MP and Labour’s shadow cabinet at Westminster, highlighting the injustice of the Tories’ cap on household benefit income. This benefit cap has already seen families forced to leave their homes and children going without suitable clothing and food.

The powers available to the Scottish Parliament allow us to do something about this right here right now and mitigate the effects of the benefit cap. Again the SNP government has been resistant to bringing forward measures that would make a difference.

Labour conference this weekend will also consider measures to address housing shortages, poor-quality housing and a private sector where rents are out of control, pushing more households into poverty.

Earlier this week, a statue was unveiled to Mary Barbour, a community activist and Labour councillor in Glasgow, who along with thousands of other women forced the introduction of rent controls and stopped evictions as families faced growing hardship during the first world war.

The right to warm, secure and affordable housing must be understood as a basic human right and throughout history the labour movement and the Labour Party have been at the forefront of speaking up on this. Indeed, this was a key focus of Richard Leonard’s leadership campaign.

Scottish Labour’s ambition to tackle and eradicate poverty needs far bolder measures than the SNP is prepared to consider.

The levels of poverty and inequality in Scotland are not inevitable. Scottish Labour, under the leadership of Richard Leonard, has been very clear that, if we are the next government in Scotland, eradicating poverty, particularly child poverty, will be at the top of our agenda.

Elaine Smith is MSP for Central Scotland.