Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday, I hosted a very important community forum in my electorate to discuss the impact the Abbott government cuts have had on organisations in my community. Organisations from across my electorate were invited, and the response was absolutely overwhelming. Not only did a huge number of organisations send representatives, but those that could not took the time to send me detailed descriptions of cuts which are hurting them and their concerns about the future.

Small local environment groups like the Friends of Damper Creek Reserve, who do not operate on a significant sum of money but rely on small volunteer grants and council assistance, have started to feel the effect of the federal government's cuts to council environment grants, which is flowing on to their groups. The vital community support services such as the Family Access Network, who provide support to disadvantaged families and young people facing homelessness by providing a roof over their head but are struggling to keep up with demand on emergency support, have no certainty of any funding beyond the next 12 months as a result of the Abbott government's decision to cut $240 million from the DSS discretionary grants program. The Southern Ethnic Advisory and Advocacy Council, who also rely on this grant program, are facing a $200,000 funding shortfall from July next year and have no idea how they will provide support to their client base. And Community Information Support Services, who provide emergency relief for people in need, will also now struggle to provide the vital tax time financial advice service they provide through volunteers, because their clients now all need to have their own webpage and access to online services. Most of these people do not even have a computer, let alone their own email account.

In my electorate, the demand on the community information support service will only increase, as the Abbott government did not, despite previous assurances, provide any funding at all to the Waverley Benevolent Society. This organisation provides vital support in my community; they are now going to rely entirely on donations.

We also heard clearly and loudly from our local schools, who just want to know: where is our Gonski money? This was a broad spectrum of local organisations—schools, universities, community groups, housing associations and philanthropic organisations—bound together by a common set of complaints: cuts to existing funding, uncertainty around future funding and a genuine concern that they will no longer be able to provide the level of services that lives up to the expectations and needs of our community. These are all organisations that, no matter their size, need to budget and plan ahead. They are being hampered by cuts, and the uncertainty about future funding is making it almost impossible to plan ahead.

I call on the government to restore the funding they had cut from the organisations that so many people in my community rely on and to follow the experience and advice of the Eastern Community Legal Centre—who, I am happy to say, had their funding restored by the Abbott government, but only after massive lobbying. So I urge all community organisations, groups and services to keep lobbying and complaining loudly and to keep their fight in the public eye, because that is how their funding will be restored. But they should not have to. Vital services in our community should be funded appropriately to serve the client base that needs their help.