Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Prime Minister. Foodbank is the largest provider of vital food and groceries to food relief charities around Australia. These charities provide relief to over 815,000 Australians each month, including people in Warringah and, importantly, farmers affected by the drought. Two hundred and fifty-two tonnes of food and groceries were shipped out of the Foodbank New South Wales warehouse last week alone, and 110 tonnes went to regional and remote areas in New South Wales. Yet Foodbank is not receiving any emergency funding to meet increased demand. Will the government increase funding to Foodbank and support a food security strategy as part of Australia's response to climate change?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question, and I will ask the Minister representing the Minister for Families and Social Services to respond further to the member's question. The government actually does provide support to Foodbank. We do to many Foodbank services around the country. We are pleased to do so, because we acknowledge the tremendous work that they do. Particularly as part of our drought program, we are working with a whole host of different charitable organisations. We have provided over $50 million, in fact, to organisations like the Salvos, Vinnies and others—the Country Women's Association—to ensure that we are providing the support we can. But I will ask the Minister representing the Minister for Families and Social Services to add further.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and the Prime Minister for the opportunity to add some further information in relation to the support that the government provides for Foodbank—some $750,000 a year in funding over a 4½-year period. That of course is not the only food relief program that the Commonwealth government, the Morrison government, supports. We also provide funding for two other significant charities in this area: SecondBite and OzHarvest. These are all important measures designed to provide support to needy Australians, vulnerable Australians. And of course we continue to work with these important agencies for the delivery of this funding and continue to work with them and a whole range of other agencies to support Australians affected by drought.