Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to lend my remarks in addition to those of the member for Blair, particularly, who spoke earlier about emergency relief funding and financial counselling. I know that financial counselling services that have been supported by this government at the instigation of the minister and the parliamentary secretary have stood to the very great advantage of quite a lot of people, particularly in the growth region of my electorate, where quite a lot of new families are facing mortgage stresses and difficulties in dealing with their own finances, and I appreciate the assistance that organisations which receive financial counselling support from the government are able to provide.

One of those organisations, in particular, that springs very much to mind is the Casey North Community Information and Support Service, which I have a bit to do with in my electorate. Since I became the member for La Trobe relatively recently, I know from their comments that they certainly appreciate the efforts that the government has made in financial counselling. From the last report of the Casey North Community Information and Support Service, I know that in the area of Berwick they have seen a 58 per cent increase in the number of financial counselling services and individual action items that they have provided to residents. There are clearly needs, and they are clearly responding very well to those needs.

The financial counselling services that we are helping to support reflect part of the broader agenda that this government has in supporting consumers, individuals and families in better money management—a better understanding of what could otherwise be fairly precarious financial circumstances—through useful tools like MoneySmart and the initiatives we are contemplating in relation to better consumer protection and in relation to credit arrangements. This goes hand in hand with all of those kinds of endeavours and is very, very helpful indeed.

I am particularly aware that the financial counselling services that are provided in my electorate do not simply go to assisting people with their financial health. They very much go to ensuring that relationships are not put under additional stress. They go to supporting women who are in financial difficulties, particularly those who face the circumstances of being single parents. The additional efforts that go to assisting them to better understand their debt circumstances and their exposure to credit risk, and just giving them a helping hand, are particularly valuable.

I ask the Parliament Secretary for Community Services to elaborate a little more on the way the financial counselling services are expanded upon in this budget, or are continued in this budget, and to outline a little further how these services will advantage electorates such as mine.

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