Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we condemn the Abbott government's heartless cuts to vital community organisations. The ones that I want to highlight are in my electorate: Diamond Valley Community Support, Banyule Housing, Banyule Support and Information Centre and Volunteers of Banyule, all of whom provide critical support to vulnerable members in my community.

These organisations are at the very front line of community support. They provide services to those who often have nowhere else to go through emergency relief to those under extreme financial stress and by helping those battling homelessness and mental illness—even those recovering from the devastation of bushfires.

These organisations were all informed via email on the eve of Christmas that they will be losing funding to continue their good work. They were shocked to find the cut was effective from January, plunging them into turmoil. In an act of recognition of the chaos they created, the government then delayed the start of these cuts to March.

Most of my organisations still are not sure what the true extent of the damage will be, but they all know this: it will hurt their clients, services and volunteers. And it will hurt my community in Jagajaga. I call on the government to reverse these heartless cuts to community organisations immediately.