WA charities respond to 2024 Budget

The Western Australian charity sector has welcomed cost-of-living relief and tax cuts for all households, announced in this year's Budget, but the CEOs of Anglicare WA and Foodbank WA say the government is still falling short on welfare support.

Anglicare WA CEO Mark Glasson welcomed the federal government’s new five‑year National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness as a step forward to helping those in need, as well as funding for states and territories to build the roads, sewers, energy, water and community infrastructure needed for new homes and for additional social housing supply.

He congratulated the federal government for committing to $1 billion of funding directed towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and youth, under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility.

However, Mr Glasson, along with Foodbank WA’s CEO Kate O’Hara, said there is still not enough welfare support for those struggling to make ends meet, with increased cost-of-living including housing and grocery costs keeping people below the poverty line.

“The downside is this budget lacks the targeted support to the lowest income households who feel the cost-of-living rises the most,” Mr Glasson said.

Ms O'Hara said that homelessness and food insecurity is a complex and costly social issue. 

“What we are seeing at Foodbank WA is growing pressure on budgets and too many facing homelessness. We fear this part of our community will grow and the stress will lead to many making poor decisions in other areas of their life leading to more complex and costly social issues,” Ms O’Hara told Business News.

“Sadly, the action in the area of housing to address what we believe will be a growing homelessness issue, is not a short-term fix.

"Even support for FDV services needs time to implement, which is why we will keep doing all we can to support both the homeless services sector and households on the brink."

While boosting rental assistance and providing electricity bill relief are welcome short-term boosts for those struggling below the line, Mr Glasson said the solution is short-term and lacks permanency to help reduce poverty.

“It’s simply not enough to have any meaningful impact,” he said.

“Inadequate income support is the key cause of poverty in Australia and it’s unacceptable for a government to leave its most vulnerable citizens unable to cover the basics of food, housing and medicine."

^{Mark Glasson and Kate O'Hara at a Hearts and Minds CEO lunch.}

Mr Glasson said Anglicare WA is “deeply disappointed that JobSeeker and other income support payments are kept well below the poverty line”.

“The payment has been too low for too long, trapping people in poverty instead of helping them escape it. Only an increase to the base rate of Centrelink payments can really help people doing it the toughest. This is major unfinished business from the Budget,” he said. 

“As we head towards a federal election, our organisation will be looking to WA federal MPs to make the case to raise JobSeeker and other critical government payments."

Last month, Anglicare’s 2024 Rental Affordability Snapshot found a person on JobSeeker could only afford three rentals out of 45,000 listings nationally. This week’s increase adds just three additional rentals across the entire country.

On top of the rental crisis and housing unaffordability, Ms O’Hara said many Western Australians are struggling to get food on the table. “Having good food available, no matter your circumstances, helps people make more considered decisions. Changing income support payments could have started to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots. Poverty is very real in this two-speed economy of the haves and have-nots,” she said. 

“It’s great to see steps forward in commitments to addressing a number of sectors facing hardship. The obvious major strategy that has sadly been missed is the change to welfare payments.

“The COVID Jobseeker strategy was a clear demonstration of what can be achieved. The data from the welfare support sector speaks for itself and it has an immediate impact. That would have then allowed time for the strategies included in the Budget that have mid- and long-term impacts in housing, FDV, homelessness, training and skill development. For us, we will keep supporting families to not lose their homes, as best we can,” Ms O’Hara said.