Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I rise to speak today, back home in my electorate of Indi at Waminda Community House in Benalla the weekly food relief session is beginning. Each week, families drop into Waminda to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables and other food for their households, a service that helps those struggling to make ends meet. We hear a lot about the rising cost of living in this place, but places like Waminda are where people are really feeling it. Last week when I visited Waminda, the manager there, Leanne Bullard, told me that demand for the food relief service is slowly but surely rising. At Waminda people take what they need for food relief, and Leanne says both the number of people and the amount of food being collected is increasing as conditions get more and more difficult.

I also recently visited Albury Wodonga Regional FoodShare, where the story is very similar. The number of people seeking out their services is going up, including people from more backgrounds, people who are really struggling. I met with volunteer coordinator Sue Thornton and chair Simon Welsh, and they told me they were staggered by the change in people seeking help from their service. It's people who are working, it's single mums with kids and mortgages, and there just isn't enough money to pay for food, the roof over their heads and the bills they have to cope with.

There are community houses and food shares across my electorate who are telling the same story. More people are needing help, and time and time again they are stepping up to meet that demand. People are heading off to work, contributing to our communities, but there is no guarantee there will be enough for them. Albury Wodonga Regional FoodShare says that across their region there are 22,230 people living in poverty, and that includes 4,942 children. This is defined by those with a household income of less than $368 per week. It's hard to fathom, but this is the reality. In their catchment, on any given day at least 2,223 people require food assistance.

The government is indebted to these neighbourhood houses. Our communities are indebted to these neighbourhood houses and food shares because they are filling the gap when policy fails. The cost of living goes up and up, and yet the rate of JobSeeker and other welfare payments barely shifts. It is charities, neighbourhood houses and others that are stepping into the breach. This week we saw the launch of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Poverty, and the message from Reverend Tim Costello and economist Chris Richardson was clear: an increase in welfare payments and the May budget is long overdue. Mr Richardson said that the single unemployment benefit as a percentage of full-time wage earnings has dropped from 24 per cent in 1990 to 18.5 per cent today. Amongst OECD countries, Australia is only second lowest, after Greece, in unemployment benefits as a percentage of full-time earnings. A new study released this week from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service found 60 per cent of people on the JobSeeker Payment, 72 per cent of people on the parenting payment and 34 per cent of people on youth allowance lived in poverty.

We must do better to support the most vulnerable in our society. Neighbourhood houses, charities and food shares play an important role, but we can't keep expecting more and more of them to do this if the government won't also step up. I want to say thank you to every neighbourhood house, food share, charity and organisation in my electorate of Indi that is ensuring people in our committees have fresh fruit and vegetables, that they don't go hungry, that they have sanitary items, that they have dignity. You are a vital but often unseen part of our society.

Soon we will see the first report from the new Economic Inclusion Advisory Panel on the adequacy of income support payments. The panel was set up following a sensible amendment from Independent Senator David Pocock last year, and I thank him for that very important work. I think we know what the panel will say about the state and the rate of JobSeeker and other payments, and I certainly hope that this government will finally listen.