CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mrs McINTOSH (Lindsay) (10:32): I want to tell the chamber about a hardworking 55-year-old man from Lindsay who recently reached out in absolute desperation. He works full-time, yet for the first time in his life he cannot afford his immediate living costs. He said: With all the cost rises I am in severe financial distress.
More working-class people, like myself, are becoming the new poor of our country. That is what the Albanese government's cost-of-living crisis looks like in Lindsay—a man with a full-time job looking at people sleeping in their cars and wondering, 'How far am I from that?' Penrith Vinnies support centre coordinator Thomas Jones said the centre recorded 3,000 walk-ins last year—20 per cent more than in 2024.
That's on top of another 4,000 requests for assistance. But what really hit home is who he is helping: up to 80 new people a week who've never sought charity assistance before; 53 per cent are private renters—that's more than half; and 20 per cent are paying off mortgages. Thomas said: They're all working, even couples—dual incomes and they're struggling still.
It's not that these families are mismanaging their finances. It's that prices have jumped everywhere. When asked whether he saw things improving, his answer was heartbreaking: I don't really see any end in sight.
When did Australians at work need emergency food relief? When did this become normal? These are people for whom work is no longer enough.
And is there any wonder? Labor promised to cut electricity bills. Instead, prices are up nearly 40 per cent—groceries, insurance and fuel.
For a tradie in Penrith, it's costing more than $230 just to fill up a ute, and the dream of owning a home is slipping further out of reach. New Canstar figures show that you need to earn at least $250,000 a year before tax to afford a typical Sydney house. Meanwhile, median house rents in Penrith have risen more than 40 per cent under Labor from $450 a week to $640 a week.
That's nearly $10,000 extra a year, money people don't have and certainly money that families don't have. A family with a typical $860,000 Penrith mortgage is paying $521 more a month than in February. How much more does this government expect families to absorb?
The people of Lindsay are such hardworking people. They want to get ahead. They want a better life for their families, but they need breathing room.
What does it say about Australia when people work hard their whole lives and they still become the new poor, one missed payment away from losing their home and one step closer to living in their car?