Like the previous speaker, I want to acknowledge some of the amazing organisations within my electorate that have a massive impact—those important charities, those volunteers, the philanthropists and the community foundations which the motion refers to. I want to outline some of the work that they're doing but also to outline some of the challenges that they've been facing and some of the areas where they want to see government focusing, to try to assist them in, firstly, reducing the amount of demand on their services, but, secondly, having the capacity to respond to growing demand. When I think about charities and volunteers within the Redlands, I think about the many service clubs that thrive in my neck of the woods and particularly the rotary clubs. I've got this great project in my electorate called RARE, or the Rotary Australia Repurposing Equipment project. Effectively, it is a large series of warehouses where equipment gets donated from around South-East Queensland. It gets brought there to their site at Alex Hills. It is a council leased facility. They do a terrific job and have so many hundreds of volunteers working hours throughout the week. Every time I'm there I see lots of activity going on.

They are accepting donations of different equipment that is no longer required within South-East Queensland but is being posted out to our Pacific partners—out to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, the Solomons and further afield. They've got a great tally on the board of their office there, where they outline every shipping container that they've sent to another country. Each of those shipping containers is filled with hospital beds or chairs and tables for classrooms or books—full of everything you could possibly think of that a community might need. They do a terrific job.

I also think about the food banks in my electorate. I think about the Redlands Community Centre. I think about the great food service at the Rock church at Capalaba and also at the Champion support services in Thornlands. I recently met with the Champion support services, and they told me that they've had over an eight-fold increase in demand in the last couple of years. That is not through any extra advertising or getting the word out that they're offering this great service—of course, that's happens naturally through word of mouth—but is just purely through more people requiring support when finding themselves below that breadline.

Of course, there are the Night Ninjas who operate within my electorate at three different sites that are providing meals to the homeless. Last week, I attended their annual general meeting, and the numbers were quite staggering. In the financial year of 2023, they served only 856 meals, which is still quite a lot. Last financial year, the financial year they were reporting on at the AGM, they had served 2,934. That's a significant increase in just three financial years. They've nearly tripled or more than tripled their level of service. When I was speaking to them, that reflects the growing demand. That growing demand is coming from the increased cost-of-living pressures that we're seeing, the higher inflation and the higher interest rates. It's meant there is a greater demand on all these services, and they're struggling to keep up with the number of local households who are doing it tough and with people who are finding themselves homeless. It's becoming increasingly difficult for charities and the not-for-profit sector to operate across the country.

I was interested to see recently the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission's latest annual charities report, which confirmed that cost-of-living pressures were placing an increased strain on Australian families, as we know about because we're all hearing that within our electorate offices, but also on the charities that support them. The latest report shows that charities generated a record $239 billion in revenue. That was from the 2024 year. That was up 7.5 per cent, but expenses rose even faster, increasing by 8.6 per cent to $231 billion. So we've got more Australians turning to charities, but also charities are struggling to keep up with the growing expenses for everything that they're purchasing. Charities now employ 1.6 million Australians, with employee expenses increasing by 10 per cent. The report also highlighted the growing demand for support among older Australians, with particularly people aged 65 and over now among the most common beneficiaries of charitable services.

We've got to do better to support those not-for-profits and charities, and we've got to do better to reduce the cost-of-living pressures on these Australians.