Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate a local non-government organisation in the community of Midland, the Midland Information, Debt and Legal Advocacy Service, which is more commonly known as MIDLAS. It won the media and promotional category for its outstanding achievement in raising the profile of community services in Western Australia at the Community Services Excellence Awards presented by the Department of Communities in May this year. MIDLAS won the award for its social innovation program. This has seen MIDLAS implement a highly effective social media campaign involving YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for the purposes of raising awareness about the difficulties faced by some of the most disadvantaged families in our communities, distributing relevant and up-to-date information and advocacy options to residents and in forming and building stronger relationships with the wider community. All the staff of MIDLAS are to be commended and congratulated for their hard work, dedication, passion and enthusiasm for not only providing the services but making them as accessible as possible for residents.

MIDLAS, under the direction of Julia Birch and its very capable board, offer an invaluable service to the community. They offer six free services to disadvantaged and vulnerable people within our local community. The services provided include a disability services, financial services, tenancy services, legal services, information and referral and emergency relief. I know that they are very successful in offering those services. I constantly hear about the exceptional work that they do for our local residents. My office and I are confident in referring people to MIDLAS as we know that they will provide an excellent service, follow up issues promptly and act with compassion and integrity. This is an incredibly important service for the residents of Hasluck, who have to cope with continually increasing cost-of-living pressures. They will certainly be hit by the world's biggest carbon tax on 1 July. Currently—and this is taken directly from their website—MIDLAS is now preparing for any repercussions that may arise out of the impending carbon tax.

Like most NGOs that provide invaluable support to some of the most in need residents, they find the current grants system difficult to work with and very short sighted. Annual grant requirements and applications take up a lot of their time, time that would be best directed to serving our local community. Every organisation should have the opportunity to serve their local community effectively, no matter what industry they operate in. The government needs to support our community service organisations such as MIDLAS, which will be witnessing firsthand the effects of this disastrous carbon tax. The Prime Minister will not meet the people directly affected by her policy. The people who work in this industry, like the staff at MIDLAS, will be the ones providing real help and hope to those in this community who will most certainly be disadvantaged. I call on this government to support out local community service industries and review the red tape burden imposed on them by the inadequate grants systems.