Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was interesting to see the member for Fisher raising this motion today and once again patting himself and his government on the back for some pretty extreme altruism and philanthropy. If I didn't know better, after listening to him speak I would think that we had a government that really cared about communities. But I do know better and so do people in Australia. I, of course, absolutely welcome any funding to our communities, particularly in regional and low-income areas like my electorate of Longman. We absolutely welcome any funding at all to our communities. I would never, ever turn my nose up at additional funding for the types of groups and organisations in the electorate that need help, but I do take issue with anything that puts that money in a greater position than those without money.

Deserving community organisations in my electorate that do really incredible work in our community have been unable to apply for this community grants program. The reason they have been unable to apply is that they couldn't afford to. In low-income electorates like Longman, people have to make do with what they have got. Typically, that means providing support or a service without much money in the bank at all. It can limit the capabilities of the organisations and constrains the amount of good work they can do in the community when you don't have much money in the bank to begin with. Government grants are really meant to counter this. They are meant to help our communities and to provide funding to those who need it. When those community organisations have to already have money in the bank to apply for these grants, it puts the poorer community groups at a real and significant disadvantage. Labor is about equity and an even playing field. So it really pains me to see those with the least, those who need funding the most, being ineligible to apply.

It really isn't fair, but it is typical of this government—and it is what we have come to expect from this government—to help those with money. We don't have to think back very far about the government helping people with money; there was the $16,400 tax cut it happily bestowed upon millionaires while everyday Australians are struggling to get by. They are struggling to get by, of course, because energy prices have skyrocketed under this government. Those people who had their penalty rates cut earlier this year—a cut to their take-home pay, the pay that puts food on the table—are struggling to get by because this government has refused to roll back its unjustifiable freeze on Medicare, which it seems to want to extend forever. It's still there. Medicare is still frozen in a lot of parts. The inequality is just getting worse. It is getting worse under this government, and they are doing nothing but exacerbate it.

I would say, though, that the Stronger Communities grants program has been a great catalyst for my office to build a community committee that represents Longman. The committee was established to review those expressions of interest for the grants, but we have plans to continue this committee and help our community, where possible, through the work it does. This committee consists of people who are a true representation of the electorate of Longman. There is someone who represents the seniors of our community and someone who represents the veterans of our community. There is also a health representative and an education representative—a local primary school principal—and a local business owner in King Street, the main street of Caboolture. We have also have one of the student leaders at Dakabin State High School and an Indigenous elder who represents both the police and his Indigenous community. So it is a really grassroots committee that is determining those expressions of interests.

There were 18 worthy expressions of interest passed on to the department for selection, and I am really hoping that each one is approved. They are all very worthy and deserving. Longman needs and deserves every single bit of government funding that it can get. I want to make it clear that I can't wholeheartedly support any measures that discriminate on financial status, when we are looking at government funding, but what I can say is that every single one of those 18 community groups which have applied for funding is needy and deserving of that money.

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