CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (10:11): Last week I was in Kerang, a small town in my electorate in north-west Victoria, meeting with representatives of the Kerang Neighbourhood House. I was there to recognise their successful application for the Australia Post Community Grants Program—$10,000 to deliver their healing through art program. The program supports women in Kerang and surrounding rural communities through guided art therapy workshops.
The program will create a space for creative expression, emotional health and peer connection, fostering mental health and wellbeing and empowering participants with tools for self-care and community support. In addition to Kerang Neighbourhood House offering mental health programs to support wellbeing and social connection, they run a food and emergency relief service which is proving to be a lifeline for those in need in the local community.
I've got to say walking in there and seeing the vast array of groceries available to help that small community is really amazing. A little over a year ago, they were providing assistance to around 160 people per month. This has risen dramatically to 1,000 people a month.
From 160 people to 1,000 people every month is incredible—an additional 840 people. If that isn't alarming evidence of how tough people are doing it under the Albanese Labor government's cost-of-living crisis, I don't know what is. If it were not for grassroots organisations like Kerang Neighbourhood House, many would not know where to turn.
I thank the team for their hard work, dedication and innovation. Kerang Neighbourhood House recently won a $25,000 grant from the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal to purchase a food and emergency relief van. Why?
Because they actually need to take groceries out to their local communities. It's not a train ride away. It's not a bus ride away.
People are isolated, and they need help. The Kerang Neighbourhood House have done an astounding job in thinking outside the box and applying for small grants where they can achieve those ends. The Department of Social Services recently stripped funding that sustained two other local grassroots organisations with decades of impeccable service delivery—the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre and the Stawell Interchurch Council.
Like the Kerang Neighbourhood House, they rely on funds coming in, and this afternoon I will be challenging the current minister for social services, Tanya Plibersek, about the cost-cutting to these service deliveries, because our local communities absolutely rely on this funding.