Elsie Lange
Australia’s leading hunger relief organisation and a Hume councillor have renewed calls to increase JobSeeker welfare payment to tackle the “skyrocketing” cost of living and relieve pressure on food banks.
Foodbank Victoria chief executive Dave McNamara said it was important to note how the implementation of the JobKeeper payment and the increase of the JobSeeker rate during lockdowns had led to a decrease in demand “across the foodbank network”.
“[With the] cost of living, with housing availability and skyrocketing rents… people were struggling before these cost of living impacts,” Mr McNamara said.
“The ability now to purchase healthy food is even harder than it was 12 months ago. If we want a society that is equitable… the minimum JobSeeker [rate] should be increased so people can afford a healthy meal.”
He said across the northern and western suburbs, such as Hume, Melton, Brimbank and Wyndham, the organisation has seen “massive growth” in demand.
“That region is one of the fastest growing areas of food insecurity in the state, that’s because you have large areas of urban sprawl so people are being pushed further out to buy property,” Mr McNamara said.
Hume councillor Jarrod Bell said he supported calls from Foodbank to increase welfare payments.
“The JobSeeker allowance should be there [for people] to live a comfortable life while they are seeking additional employment… Support like this is not a handout, it is a hand up,” he said.
“If you want to entrench disadvantage in people, then not giving them the support that is at the most basic level enough to live off is the way to do it.”
Jane Williams is the service manager at CareWorks SunRanges in Sunbury, a not-for-profit crisis relief centre with a focus on addressing food insecurity – she said even since she last spoke to Star Weekly in mid-2022, the pressure on the service had escalated further.
“[Right now] we can get like eight new clients a week, that could be eight families,” she said.
“[People take] whatever you can supply them. Food is our main thing, and that will always be because we don’t want to see people go hungry.”
Foodbank is where charities like CareWorks SunRanges source a lot of their produce – Mr McNamara said Foodbank’s costs had shot up massively as more and more people sought their assistance.
He also said more than 50 per cent of people presenting to charities were actually working families, which is something Ms Williams was seeing on the ground.
“We have gone from pre-pandemic spending to roughly $100,000 supplementing donated food, it’s now $5 million,” he said.
