Wednesday, 5 February 2025

 Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Carers and Volunteers) (14:30): I am very pleased to update the house on the Allan Labor government’s commitment to supporting community food relief right across Victoria. We know that cost-of-living pressures continue to have a really significant impact across the state and that many families are really doing it tough, and that is why we invested an additional $6 million into providing food relief through the 2024–25 state budget, building on our investment of more than $56 million since 2020.

In December I was pleased to announce the recipients of more than 110 grants for community organisations and neighbourhood houses, which provide much-needed food relief across the state, like South East Community Links, who provide terrific services across the south-east, including in Dandenong, Clarinda and Mulgrave, and who are expanding their food voucher and culturally appropriate food relief capabilities, and Banksia Gardens community centre, well known to the member for Broadmeadows, who are purchasing more food to distribute and increasing their food storage facilities.

We are providing additional food relief support to people and families across regional Victoria. We have invested $1 million to support statewide food relief providers, including the terrific Geelong Food Relief Centre, as the members for Lara, Geelong and Bellarine well know, and we have invested an additional $1.5 million in the state’s six regional food relief hubs in Bendigo, Shepparton, Geelong, Albury–Wodonga, Mildura and Warrnambool so that they can keep doing their really essential work of helping regional Victorians when and where they need it most.

This government supports our community food relief sector and the thousands of outstanding volunteers who work in these organisations, and I thank each and every one of those volunteers for the incredibly important work that they do every day.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the House, this is not acceptable. As I reminded members at the table yesterday, you are not immune from being ejected from the chamber.