Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

The government are deaf to the cries for help from Australians suffering from the cost-of-living crisis, and they are blind to the real suffering that is happening across our community. Of course, at the coalface of this cost-of-living crisis in our country are charities, not-for-profit organisations and other community sector organisations. In fact, perhaps the most important underreported feature of the Reserve Bank of Australia's Statement on monetary policy released earlier in August were the RBA's two statements on the cost-of-living pressure—the cost-of-living crisis caused by, fanned by and encouraged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Dr Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer—and how charities and community sector organisations are suffering.

In that Statement on monetary policyand I encourage Labor senators to pull it out in front of them now—on page 29, and at page 42, you'll see the statement in black and white. This is what the RBA has had to say:

Community service organisations report that demand for their services remains at a very high level compared with the years before the pandemic owing to cost-of-living pressures and a shortage of affordable housing.

That same report, the Statement on monetary policy, authored by the governor of the RBA, says at page 42 that community service organisations:

… are now supporting a broader range of clients, including dual income households and those with mortgages who are often seeking support for the first time.

Why are Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers and charities minister Dr Andrew Leigh choosing to make life harder for our charities, not-for-profit organisations and other community groups?

In fact, in the news in the last two days, reputable charitable organisations have been ringing the bells, saying they are experiencing levels of demand that they have never seen before. If you were watching ABC News yesterday, you would have heard stories from Foodbank. There is a headline, 'Foodbank Victoria blames cost-of-living crisis for understocked shelves'. The story says:

Foodbank Victoria has been forced to launch a two-day emergency food drive across August 10 and 11 to re-stock its "dangerously empty" warehouse shelves.

The story goes on to say that Foodbank says this is:

… a national problem driven initially by the COVID-19 pandemic and later cost-of-living pressures eating into families' financial buffers.

"Week on week, we've seen more people, across the whole country, having to access food relief for the first time.

"You see middle-income people, working families, duel-income families just trying to survive and entering these food relief centres for the first time.

OzHarvest, another respected, reputable charity, says it has been forced to open a new supermarket in Adelaide's west, offering groceries to people in need as demand for food relief rises. Those of us in this place know the important work Ronni Kahn AO, the OzHarvest founder, has done. She has said:

"In my 20 years of running OzHarvest I have never seen the demand as great—the cost of living, the results of post-COVID—it's biting into ordinary working people."

But you don't have to believe OzHarvest or even Foodbank. The 10th annual report of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission makes it very clear. The foreword, by commissioner Sue Woodward, says:

Our data shows that cost of living issues had an impact on charities in 2022, with increases in expenses and liabilities outpacing increases in revenue and assets …

She says expenses increased in the same year, employee expenses are now the highest they have been and while donations did grow they did not grow at the rate they have in previous years. Why are Dr Jim Chalmers, Andrew Leigh and the Prime Minister making it hard for charities and community organisations in our country?