Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the Horsham Christian community food bank, a great organisation in Horsham that I have had the pleasure of visiting several times. They have over 70 volunteers, people who come and give their time. They have school groups who have donated money and food. At a lot of the local churches, every week, people put in food as part of the collection plate, and they send it down there.

I put on the record that I am very disappointed that when they sought funding this year for a grant of $50,000, which they have been receiving year in, year out, they were unsuccessful. This is actually a good expenditure of taxpayer dollars—$50,000 of Australian taxpayers' money. That pays for power and the running costs of the refrigerator et cetera. Combined with 70 volunteers, it deals with drought-affected farmers who quietly come in the back door. It deals with women in cases where they are fleeing from domestic violence. It deals with some of the poorest in a regional country town. I am very disappointed that the government, the government that I am a part of, has not come up with the $50,000 to fund this. I am going to fight for this, because there are very few times when you can actually combine $50,000 with the work of 70 volunteers to achieve so much good. This is something worth funding.