Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our social landscape has changed dramatically thanks to COVID-19. We all remember the days of social distancing and avoiding crowded places. The days of enforced distancing are over, but, ironically, what many people are left with now is social distance. Another name for that is loneliness. Last year's State of the Nation report reported that nearly one in three Australians feel lonely. Loneliness is by no means a new problem, but the changes to our society wrought by COVID-19 have resulted in loneliness flowing for new reasons. Many people work from home, isolated from colleagues, university students attend lectures online from home, and our curated social media life fills the place of messy real-life interactions.

Last week I hosted a loneliness roundtable with the members for Boothby and Hunter. We were joined by some of the amazing community groups in Moreton—St David's Neighbourhood Centre, Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre, Acacia Ridge Community Centre, Kyabra, Support Groups Queensland, the Annerley Baptist Church and the Filipino-Australian Foundation. Their feedback reflected what I learnt during my 'Say G'Day in May' program, when I walked around my electorate back in 2018 highlighting loneliness. People want to connect with others, it's in our DNA, and governments need to find ways to make that easier. We need to strengthen the capacity of our community groups to provide multiple entry points to their valuable programs. We need to attract volunteers back and we need to provide services where people go in their busy lives—for example, using schools.