Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At this time of year, many of us are spending extra money, buying Christmas presents, celebrating the end of the year with our colleagues, friends and families, and planning office Christmas parties. We are out more, socialising more and buying more. Wouldn't it be good if, with all this extra spending, we were also doing some extra good? There are many social enterprises who use their business to contribute to the community, and now is the perfect time to think about where our money is going and what good we can be doing with it.

So I say to everyone: consider organising your office Christmas parties or buying your Christmas presents this year at one of the excellent social enterprises in Melbourne that are making a massive difference in our city. If you are looking for gifts, you can buy a bike, bike accessories or training courses at Good Cycles, a not-for-profit bike shop in Docklands. It sells bikes and accessories and supports at-risk young people through training programs and material donations. Buy your clothes from the amazing Social Studio in Collingwood, a Collingwood-based fashion label that uses upcycled and reclaimed materials to make clothes while also providing training and work to people from refugee backgrounds, or from HoMie, a store in Melbourne Central that donates an item of clothing to a person experiencing homelessness for every purchase that you make in the store. You could buy a bracelet from McAuley Community Services For Women, in Kensington, to support the work they do with women and children escaping family violence. Buy skin care from Metta Skincare, a Melbourne based company that sources all of its ingredients comes from suppliers using sustainable practices and uses 50 per cent of its profits to support not-for-profit organisations working in the area of sustainable agriculture, fair trade and eradication of poverty. Buy a welcome doormat from The Welcome Committee to help fund a campaign advocating for the humane processing of asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. Or support Pollinate Energy, who are getting solar powered lights to Indian families, bypassing coal fired electricity. If you are not looking for gifts, you can buy your Christmas pudding from Streat, a catering organisation with a cafe in Melbourne city that provides training for young people at risk of homelessness. Or do your grocery shopping at Friends of the Earth co-op in Collingwood.

There are so many venues who now provide great food and atmosphere while also supporting the community, and some of them will do catering for your Christmas party too. Why not look at organisations like Streat, SCARF, The Cutting Table, Lentil as Anything, Long Street Coffee, Charcoal Lane and The Sorghum Sisters. Or you could go to cafes and bars such as Kinfolk, Shebeen and Feast of Merit who donate 100 per cent of their profits to organisations working in Australia and the developing world to combat poverty and disadvantage. If none of this stuff is for you, I am pretty sure there is no way you can deny the need for toilet paper, so you may as well buy the forest friendly toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap and donate 50 per cent of profits to WaterAid, an organisation that builds toilets and improves sanitation in the developing world. I encourage everyone to visit the Good Xmas Trail website for Christmas shopping ideas for social enterprise. Make sure you use the money you are spending this Christmas to do good.