Salvation Army Tamworth Electorate Services

Mr PETER DRAPER (Tamworth) [4.42 p.m.]: Over the weekend of 24 and 25 May Salvation Army volunteers in the electorate of Tamworth were out and about doorknocking for the national Red Shield Appeal. In Tamworth city alone, some 600 people collected for the appeal, raising close to $40,000. With more to come from business and postal donations, they hope to reach a total target of $100,000. Our local Salvos were doing their bit to help reach the 2008 national target of $68 million. The sale of recycled goods through the Salvation Army store provides a large proportion of the yearly budget for local programs—some $100,000 per annum. It is food for thought that the Salvos will help more than one million Australians in 2008.

At a time when the national political debate seems focused on 5¢ a litre on petrol and spirit taxes, community organisations such as the Salvos have been shouldering more of the responsibility for assisting fellow Australians who are doing it tough. Sadly, recent increases in food and petrol prices plus interest rate hikes mean that even more people find themselves in need of assistance. Our local Salvation Army officer, Captain Mark Everitt, told me there has been a noticeable spike in requests for assistance in the past 12 months from across the community. Across the board, the farming community, seniors, those dependent on Centrelink payments and struggling working families are battling to make ends meet and finding it increasingly impossible to balance a budget. Locally, the Salvation Army's formal interview times for assessment of client needs averaged six hours per week, but more recently they have had to double that requirement in order to meet demand. Captain Everitt said:

The main request from the farming community recently has been for assistance with power accounts. After six or seven years of drought they don't have the income for power for essential farm production requirements. There are also calls for assistance in registering motor vehicles, rate payments, water haulage, insurance and stock feed. Somehow they have managed to survive to this point, but demand is increasing and putting much greater strains on the drought assistance available.

He continued:

We're finding that people who are budgeting carefully and diligently are seeking more assistance because income is not keeping up with the cost of living. I've had an experience with a mother who has responsibly managed her home, has laid out her weekly budget and is in despair because she can't meet the cost of supporting her family and this is not an isolated case. Senior citizens who have worked hard all their life to help build this nation find themselves in a position where the nation is in an enviable financial situation but they're finding it hard to put food on the table.

According to Captain Everitt:

There has been a considerable increase in the number of families with full time employment who have requested assistance from the Salvation Army to relieve pressure on their weekly budget due to the increase in mortgage repayments and general increases in the cost of living, particularly food and transport costs.

Some of these people come in dressed in business shirts and ties but it disguises the desperate financial need they are in. Twelve months ago these people may well have considered themselves a part of an independent middle Australia, but now find themselves seeking assistance.

The Salvation Army is still hugely dependent on public donations. However, as the financial crisis bites, many individuals are finding it more difficult to give, and in fact are seeking assistance themselves. There are two tiers to Salvation Army support in our region. Addiction recovery programs and telephone counselling are provided by the national organisation while, locally, financial counselling, rural chaplaincy, disaster relief and emergency services are just part of the support network.

At the same time the Salvation Army is facing massively increasing overheads in providing its services due to the very factors that are increasing demand for those services. Captain Everitt told me that the Salvos were currently providing about $4,000 a month to meet food costs alone, and he expects that this figure could increase by at least 50 per cent in coming months. Currently around $2,500 worth of electricity payment vouchers are issued through the Tamworth office, about $1,000 a month goes to assisting people with their telephone bills, and fuel vouchers total about $1,000 a month—and all demand is increasing rapidly. Captain Everitt summed up the situation extremely well when he said:

This is a loud wake up call to our nation. We are part of a global community affected by many forces outside our control. It is time to reassess our values as a community, and how we will deal with increasing pressures on people causing more demand for support services. The Lucky Country must be that for all, not just a lucky few, and we must find equity for the disadvantaged.

To many, it appears the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Thank God for our local Salvos!