Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As people right across Australia and particularly in my community in Western Sydney struggle in the face of relentlessly rising cost-of-living pressures, so too do our charity organisations, our front line services who assist with food and housing to those who need it most. I held a roundtable just the other week to discuss these issues with many of the organisations operating locally in my electorate of Lindsay. I heard about the work they are doing with the homeless people, whose numbers increase every day now include working families, and they just can't keep up. These organisations, which are designed to help people in financial hardship, are also against the wall in many cases. There's been a 50 per cent increase in demand for services across the board. One food provider told me 60,000 meals has now doubled to 120,000. They have the food for now, but it is the $1000-per-quarter rise in their energy bills and the transport costs that are exorbitant. There are fewer and fewer people to help the ever more that grow needy as their volunteer base also feels the cost-of-living crunch. When across our country these organisations who deliver frontline services are also struggling to make ends meet, the situation is dire.

Those who are putting their hands out for help are also changing. Families who have never asked for anything before, feeling despair, are now coming to our local food services to get meals. The most vulnerable have now expanded to include people who work overtime and working families with more than two jobs, and the reasons they are asking for help are the higher cost of living, the inability to access housing and energy poverty. What does it look like? I'll tell you. People who are looking to rent are effectively being rendered homeless as they are priced out of the market, and the competition to let is fierce, with lines queued down the block. Average people with jobs now seek crisis accommodation. What will we do when social housing becomes long-term housing for those with no options? Australians are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments and are going under, with rate increase after rate increase over the last 12 months. People are starting to default, and mortgages are getting cancelled.

Investors are being driven out of the market under the looming threat of increased taxes and changes to negative gearing, meaning that rental stock dwindles and prices rise. They are now facing the reality of exiting the market at a loss. Costs are being passed on, as the landlords just can't wear it. They are just average mum-and-dad investors, particularly in my community. Homeowners are holding on to homes longer because of stamp duty and selling costs, resulting in fewer homes hitting the market.

Millions of Australians are struggling right now. They are becoming the Albanese Labor government's working poor, because there is nothing in this budget for them. I'm really concerned about people in my community who may end up homeless in the near future.