E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
LOGAN
THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2019
 
SUBJECT/S: Emergency relief funding for Logan

DES HARDMAN, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FORDE: Good morning everybody. Welcome to Jim Chalmers' neck of the woods, in the federal electorate of Rankin. My name is Des Hardman. I'm the Labor candidate for Forde at the next federal election. I'm here today with NSW Senator, Jenny McAllister, who is our Shadow Assistant Minister for Families and Communities as well as Jim Chalmers, Member for Rankin and the Shadow Minister for Finance. We are also here today with some of our wonderful community organisations from around the Logan area and we're here to make a very important announcement about how Labor will support people in our community that are suffering financial hardship, and from the conversation we've had today, we've learned that you just never know when you're actually going to need some emergency relief. Emergency relief funding is really important to a lot of people in our community and like I said, you just never know when it's going to happen to you. So today's announcement is really important and it's evidence that only Labor knows that people in our community sometimes need help. We are prepared to support them. So if you want a stable government, one that has policies that build our communities and are focused on people, then at the next federal election you need to vote Labor. I'll hand over to Jenny.
 
SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER, SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES: Thanks Des. Labor knows that too many Australians are falling through the cracks. Emergency relief is one of the ways that we can help those people get their lives back together and that's why under Labor's plan, we'll allocate an additional $40 million to the organisations that deliver emergency relief to some of the poorest people in our communities. Emergency relief funding means you might be able to put some food in the fridge. It might mean you can put some petrol in the tank. It might mean you can get the medicine that you need from the chemist. It might mean that you can keep the lights on in your home. Emergency relief sometimes, is all that stands between an individual and their family and a crisis. Here in Logan, our commitment will mean that organisations will receive almost $400,000 more than they would under the Liberals. The Liberals are cutting emergency relief. They are uncaring about people who are doing it tough. We know that a lot of people find themselves in financial hardship through no fault of their own. We don't think it's right that people face those circumstances by themselves and Labor won't allow that to happen. That's why the emergency relief community is so significant and I thank Jim and Des for the advocacy for their constituents who really rely on this money and Des and Jim have just been excellent.
 
JIM CHALMERS, MP, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks very much Jenny for the mountain of work that you've done to make sure that we can properly support community leaders and community organisations who want to do the most important work of all, which is to look after the most vulnerable people in our communities. Here in Logan, unfortunately, there's a lot of need for the sorts of services that Labor is supporting today. In the community that I represent and that Des seeks to represent, we do have a lot of need. But we start with a lot of advantages too - great community groups, great community leaders who want to do the right thing by people. And that means they need a federal Government which prioritises this important work over tax breaks for the top end of town. And those are the choices at this election, and I'll come back to those in a minute. I wanted to thank our community organisations and our community leaders for the opportunity to consult with them, to learn from them about their important work supporting people in our community. It has made the difference when it comes to our own policy deliberations. We have made room for this $40 million of important investments in communities like Logan right around Australia to make sure that people get the help that they need and deserve when they need it, so that they can do what many people in the community would take for granted, those small amounts of spending on things like groceries or petrol or registration or electricity bills. We want to make sure that a Labor Government is there for them when they need it.
 
Now in a moment I'll cover off on issues of the day, but I thought first that we could hear from some of our community leaders. They'll introduce themselves and their organisation. They'll have a few things to say about the announcement today and the work that they do in this community, and then we'll take some questions on that, then we'll excuse them and go back to the issues of the day.
 
CATH BARTOLO, YFS: I'm Cath Bartolo, the CEO of YFS community organisation here in Logan. We lead a consortium with six other partners. Logan East, one of our partners is here today, where we were able last financial year, to help 9,000 people with emergency relief. As we've just heard, it makes such a difference. The other significant thing about an increase in emergency relief funding enables us to work with more people but also then to start connecting them back to other services that we all deliver. It's whether it might be domestic violence, help with financial counsellor and it helps people make that difference then where they can start to plan a bit ahead and not stay in a crisis. Even possibly to link to employment opportunities.
 
GILLIAN MARSHALL-PIERCE, LECNA: My name is Gillian Marshall-Pierce, I'm a manager from the Logan East Community Neighbourhood Association and we are a member of the consortium. We provide low and no interest loans, emergency relief and a financial counsellor. Working in the Logan region obviously, we see people from all walks of life and as a place-based community centre, I think it is really important to have a place where people can go and it's a soft entry approach with emergency relief as well. So people who potentially are experiencing mental health issues, domestic and family violence or alcohol and other drug issues. If they are too scared to actually present themselves to one of those specialist services, community centres and other places that offer emergency relief is a good first port of call for them to seek that help and not fall through the cracks. So we are really heartened by this announcement.
 
BRUCE MILLIGAN, MULTILINK: Good morning, Bruce Milligan is my name from Multilink Community Services. Emergency relief funding is critical funding. If you can imagine not being able to afford to put food on your family table tonight for dinner or not being able to pay the electricity bill to keep the lights on or put fuel in your car to be able to transport your children or get to the appointments that you need to get to? That's what we are talking about with emergency relief funding. So, it's not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity particularly in this community. The sort of announcement that Jenny has made today would give us and the other community service organisations who provide emergency relief funding certainty into the future. Certainty about the amount of funding that's available and also they'll have a potential increase in funding so we can keep supporting our clients in the community who really do need that emergency relief. Thank you.
 
CHALMERS: Do we have any questions for our friends from the community organisations?
 
JOURNALIST: I'd just love to connect with you all after this to be honest. Because I've started this week in the Ipswich/Logan area, so I'd love to connect with you for a few stories down the track. But otherwise no specifics with regards to the funding.
 
CHALMERS: Ok, thanks very much for that.

ENDS