CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms LE (Fowler) (09:35): My team and I recently doorknocked in Chipping Norton. We also visited Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections and the Community Cafe outreach service in Miller. We went to listen to families doing it tough.
In Chipping Norton I met a mother of three who said she's chosen to stay home to look after her three children. One of them has got a disability. Her husband works full time.
She said, for her, child care would cost more than it's worth. 'Food, petrol, power bills,' she said, 'are going through the roof.' Then she said something that I have not stopped thinking about. She said, 'We are the working poor.' She does not believe the government can fix that. At Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections, the pantry is open Monday to Friday, and it's still not enough.
Families are paying rent, power bills and school costs first. Food comes last if there is anything left. CEO Carole-Anne Priest told me they're now looking at opening on Saturdays to keep up.
Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections serve between 22,000 and 26,000 people annually, and each year they have seen their food programs double in numbers. In Miller, Kirsty Parkes set up the Community Cafe outreach service during COVID. Today, she sees more families lining up for a loaf of bread and free groceries.
They come from Fairfield, Liverpool and beyond. People are living in desperate times, she told me. A few years ago, Kevin came to that cafe for food and clothes for his two boys.
Without it, he said, he would not have known where to turn. Today, Kevin volunteers there; he is giving back. Then there's Sam, who catches a train and then a bus to get to the community cafe.
Some weeks she is away from home for more than five hours at a time. She doesn't make a trip for a coffee; she makes it because, without the help she gets there, the rent is late and the bills go unpaid. Sam and Kevin aren't alone.
Across our community, families are going further and waiting longer just to get by. That is the choice families in Fowler face regularly. Our community does not wait to be rescued.
Neighbours are feeding neighbours, but charities cannot carry the whole region on goodwill alone. This House spends much of its time on big national and global ambitions. Those matter.
But, in our own backyard, families and small businesses are falling behind. Piecemeal, one-off relief is not keeping pace. The result is a growing group of Australians who work hard and still cannot make ends meet.
I'm not asking for another handout. I'm asking the government to check who its relief is actually reaching. Single-income families, carers, workers in south-west Sydney—find out who is falling through the gaps and target help to them.
The families of Fowler do not want pity. They want a fair go and a government that has not forgotten them.