Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about what is an unacceptable situation facing families, adults and children in dire need of emergency food relief in Tasmania. After a year of inaction and neglect by the Morrison Liberal government, Loaves and Fishes, an essential emergency food provider in Tasmania, has been forced to make cuts to its services. This severely impacts on vulnerable Tasmanians in need.

Loaves and Fishes are based in the north-west of Tasmania, in Devonport, in the electorate of Braddon. Their operations service the entire state. Across Tasmania, Loaves and Fishes service over 220 community food programs and they service 38 school breakfast clubs. As an example of their extraordinary community engagement, last year they worked with both the Tasmanian School Canteen Association and Hansen Orchards to deliver free apples to every school throughout Tasmania—every single school. Over one million apples were distributed through that collaboration. Resources and funding permitting, Loaves and Fishes could run that program every year. Since July 2018, they have distributed over 1.4 million kilograms of healthy, nutritious food; and they have produced over 225,000 serves of healthy, nutritious ready-to-eat meals—all that without federal support. But now they are at breaking point. Without federal funding, they will have to close their Hobart operation.

Loaves and Fishes support 134 community food programs in the Hobart region. Since July 2018, in the Hobart region alone, Loaves and Fishes have distributed over 323,000 kilograms of fresh produce. They have produced over 55,000 serves of ready-to-eat meals. You have to remember, with those extraordinary statistics of over 225,000 serves of ready-to-eat meals, that the population of Tasmania is just over 500,000. It's an extraordinary call on their services and it's an extraordinary testament to the services that Loaves and Fishes provide, but it also indicates the need for emergency food relief that is here in the community in Tasmania. But areas around Greater Hobart will lose out if Loaves and Fishes have to cut services—suburbs likes Sorell, Huonville, Geeveston, Bridgewater, Gagebrook, Rokeby, Clarendon Vale, Copping, to name just some of the affected areas.

Everything that I have described—thousands of kilograms of fresh produce and hundreds of thousands of ready-to-eat meals—is achievable for $150,000 a year, just $150,000 per annum. That is a tiny amount of money, in federal budget terms, for a service that is essential to the lives and health of people in genuine need.

So how did the current situation come about? Why is this vital organisation cutting services? Let me outline what can only be described as a debacle. The Morrison government changed the wording of the emergency food relief guidelines, and now they only allow for service providers that provide on a national scale. That means that Loaves and Fishes, which only provide services in Tasmania, have now become ineligible to apply for funding. Loaves and Fishes did apply to the federal government's $4.5 million emergency food relief fund. They were left out because they're not a national organisation, despite, in fact, being connected to SecondBite, which is a national organisation. They were left out because the Morrison government changed the rules.

On 2 July this year, I wrote to the Minister Ruston asking for her to step in and review this case. I asked simply, as a stopgap, for a year's funding to prevent the cuts to services while the overall situation was reviewed. I received the minister's letter of reply, which claimed—quite wrongly—that Loaves and Fishes did not apply for funding. This is, as I understand it—and I have been advised by Loaves and Fishes—not correct. Their funding application is available for all to read. What the minister's office have done, it appears, is confuse two of the programs they are responsible for running. They have looked at who applied for another program, not the emergency food relief funding program, which is the funding in question. Of course, Loaves and Fishes wouldn't apply to the wrong program. I beg to ask how the office of the minister could confuse the program they administer. They've done so more than once. I'll explain to the Senate.

Months have passed. I and other senators in this chamber have been trying to make sense of this situation. Mr Andrew Hillier is the CEO of Devonport Chaplaincy as well as Loaves and Fishes Tasmania. Out of sheer desperation, on 6 November he sent this email to the minister: 'Further to our ongoing discussions on the federal funding of emergency food relief in Tasmania, after many conversations it seems we have got nowhere. No funding is forthcoming, no contact from the federal minister, as was promised. Yet the need across Tasmania is growing every day. What is going on? Why is this current government not interested? How can the government justify its lack of action in this space? National funding for emergency food relief was released in January. Loaves and Fishes Tasmania, LFT, contacted the government in November 2018 to get this issue resolved. It is now a year on'—November 2019—'and there has been no resolution. LFT is recognised by the Tasmanian state government'—a Liberal state government—'as one of the two key EFR providers and is currently providing around 70 per cent of emergency food relief for the whole state of Tasmania with absolutely no assistance from the federal government. Despite the $5 million investment made by the federal government into EFR, next to none of it is making it to Tasmania, despite our huge need. This is a huge concern. LFT is unable to continue in its current capacity without federal government support. As a result, we are now in the process of implementing cutbacks of our services, which will result in many people being impacted. I look forward to hearing from someone shortly. We need some prompt action now.' That was Mr Andrew Hillier, the CEO, and the email went to the minister. That information was available to the local media in Tasmania that has been following this case. Under increasing pressure from the media, when asked directly by the Hobart Mercury, Minister Ruston's office did it again. On Saturday 23 November, this was printed in the Mercury. As a spokesperson for social services, Minister Anne Ruston said:

There is no requirement for the organisation to have a national presence to be eligible for emergency relief funding.

'Emergency relief funding'—a completely different unrelated funding program that is not connected to the emergency food relief funding. So what is going on?

I say to the minister: there is a huge need in Tasmania for emergency food relief. Loaves and Fishes have demonstrated that they are one of the main providers, if not the main provider, of that relief. It's high time we had a special arrangement for Tasmania. We need the federal government to step in and provide this funding, because there will be so many people impacted by the fact that— (Time expired)