Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While the Morrison government goes around the country spruiking its budget and talking up and self-congratulating themselves over the so-called economic recovery, there are significant parts of our community that are still struggling. In my electorate of Dunkley there are a number of organisations and programs which help those most in need who do not know whether or not they are going to get continued funding to be able to operate.

Community Support Frankston is one of the busiest providers of emergency relief in south-east Melbourne. It's been operating for 50 years out of Frankston. During the height of the pandemic, as with elsewhere, the work of Community Support Frankston escalated. Food, materials and financial aid were provided to members of my community by Community Support Frankston in their time of need. But it hasn't ended. In the first quarter of this year, from January to March, compared with the same period last year, there was a 528 per cent increase in demand for food and material relief and a 229 per cent increase in demand for financial aid. Community Support Frankston anticipates this demand increasing further this year. That's about 1,500 people from my community who accessed Community Support Frankston support in the first three months of this year alone.

I thank the federal government for the additional emergency funding that Community Support Frankston got last year. However, without this funding continuing this financial year, Community Support Frankston is at risk of falling back to pre-COVID funding levels, with one-third of the budget to cater for potentially more people than at the height of the pandemic.

We have a critical shortage of housing in Frankston, a high homeless population and significant unemployment, and the impact of the removal of JobKeeper and the reduction of JobSeeker is clearly being felt, as these numbers show, so I've written to the minister to implore her to continue that funding for Community Support Frankston for the sake of my community and I repeat that request today.

Similarly, the Babes Project in Frankston, which provides crisis pregnancy support to vulnerable women across the Mornington Peninsula—more than 350 pregnant women and new mothers since 2016—is facing closing its doors because its funding to date has not been continued. The Sudanese homework club, which operating out of Monterey Secondary College in my electorate, is facing having to shut down because they don't know whether their funding is going to continue. This homework club works for diversity, community and inclusion and is so important in Frankston North. And the Babes Project—I've met young mothers who have benefited from the support that they have been given, and it has the backing of the senior social worker at Peninsula Health. So I implore the minister and government to fund these projects.