Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Goldstein for putting this motion to the House. It is important that we use this opportunity to reflect on the wealth that we have as a nation. We should be very proud of the fact that, over the past several hundred years, our country has worked extraordinarily hard to achieve that wealth and prosperity, that high standard of living, and that we have low levels of poverty by international standards. Yet—as many have observed in this debate—there are those in our society who still find life difficult every single day and struggle below the poverty line. It remains an issue for many Australians.

It is interesting to note—and I think this is where this motion has much relevance—that there are many organisations in our community that do a tremendous amount of work in this space. It is an opportunity for me today to reflect on some of the wonderful work that some of those organisations do in the electorate of Forde. They do these things out of a genuine love for the people in our community. They want to see them lifted up and see them be able to achieve the opportunities that most other Australians have achieved. They want to see these people lifted up from a place where they are just subsisting from day to day; sometimes they struggle to even get through a day.

There are consequences of poverty. There is much research which shows that people in dire economic circumstances have issues around drugs, poor health and poor educational outcomes for their children. If we can deal with the issue of poverty and lift these people up from the situation that they are in, we are going to see enormous benefits to their kids, to their family in the longer term and also to the broader community. All of these people have tremendous skills, talents and abilities. Getting them out of their situation of poverty and allowing them to utilise those skills, talents and abilities for the betterment of our communities is of enormous value and enormous importance.

I look at terrific organisations such as Lighthouse Care at Loganholme, who provide trolleys of groceries worth $25 for families and, more generally, discounted groceries in their store. The number of people going through there each week whom they provide these trolleys of groceries worth $25 to is growing by the day. Not only do they do that in our local community, but they do it in a large area of South-East Queensland. Interestingly, not all of these people are from areas that you would view as low-socioeconomic areas. There are people who live in what would be considered wealthier areas who are also struggling financially. There are organisations, such as NightLight, who go out into the streets of our community to feed and care for the homeless. Not only do they feed and care for the homeless but they will go into a street, get the neighbours out of their houses and into the street, have a cup of coffee and serve them some hot food and actually get people talking to their neighbours.

That is one of the things that I think we can all recognise in this place: we lead such busy lives that sometimes we do not spend the time to get to know our neighbours and we do not have those community bonds and relationships. They have told me stories about people in those streets who did not know of the struggles that their neighbours were going through, but as a result of getting to know their neighbours, through the work that NightLight does, people have been able to reach out and help their neighbours get through some very difficult circumstances.

It is these organisations—which not only are reflected in my communities but also, I have no doubt, are reflected in the communities of all of the members in this House and the senators as well—that do this basic grassroots work that make our communities so much better. I thank the member for Goldstein for bringing this motion to the House.

See this speech in context