Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak in the adjournment debate today about some of the organisations in my electorate of Sydney that have been successful in recent grant funding rounds, and the marvellous work they do. Most recently, 11 organisations in my electorate were successful in the Stronger Communities Program. While I can't go into all the details of the work that each of them does, I will give three examples: the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of New South Wales was successful in receiving a grant to support its participation in the 2025 NAIDOC Week celebrations; Rainbow Lodge, an amazing organisation that supports men who have just come out of jail to transition back into the community, received a grant to provide new furniture for their accommodation; and Gardeners Road Public School has set up a fantastic new inclusive playground for children with disability to support the kids in the inclusion classes at Gardeners Road.

I'd also like to mention that the most recent round of financial wellbeing and capability grants run by my own department has seen a number of organisations right across the country, including in my own electorate, receive funding to continue the vital work they do in supporting Australians who are really doing it tough. In my own electorate, the Salvation Army, Anglican Community Services, Mission Australia, Prosper, Serving Our People, St Vincent de Paul, Workskil Australia and Wesley Community Services will receive, between them, $3.8 million over the next five years, giving them the vital ability to help people who are really doing it tough—people who need a supermarket voucher to buy some food for the kids or who need immediate financial support. These organisations are also helping with financial counselling, to help people through longer-term changes to their financial wellbeing, and gambling counselling; we know that too many Australians are experiencing the negative consequences of problem gambling. These organisations are the ones that help people who are falling through the cracks when there is no other support available.

I'd also like to tell you, Deputy Speaker Haines, and to tell this place that the government has doubled support for food relief organisations. National organisations OzHarvest, Foodbank and SecondBite have, between them, seen a doubling of food available, and we've seen another organisation join the ranks for the first time—Good360, which does much the same for goods like toiletries and small consumer goods as the food relief organisations. They redistribute perfectly good stuff that would otherwise end up in landfill to the people who need it. It's good for the people who receive the assistance and it's good for the environment as well if we stop good consumer goods with very small errors in their packaging ending up in landfill.

As I draw my comments to a close, I want to end by tabling a petition today. The petition has been certified as in order by the Petitions Committee, and I have checked with the opposition that it's acceptable to them for me to table it today. This is a petition which calls for a publicly accessible national animal cruelty offenders register. It's gathered more than 4½ thousand signatures. As I say, I can confirm that it's been certified by the House Petitions Committee. We absolutely should always be encouraging the direct participation of our citizens in our democracy.

I take real pleasure in tabling a broad range of petitions. I know that citizens who take the time and put in the effort to gather signatures like this do it because they're passionately committed to the issues that they're campaigning on and because they want to see our parliament recognise the importance of this issue to them. Congratulations to Ms Gina Stokes, the chief petitioner here, for her work to end animal cruelty. I table the petition.

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