Australia's community services sector is experiencing direct impacts from fuel supply disruption and price increases combined with extreme weather incidents, prompting ACOSS to urge the government to work collaboratively towards cohesive, targeted action.
An emergency consultation undertaken by ACOSS with national members has found a significant increase in calls for help from people most at risk, and pressure on frontline services particularly in regional and remote areas.
Amidst fuel shortages and grocery prices rising, frontline services are hearing increasing reports of people on lower incomes having to make impossible choices and going without necessities like food and medicine to get by.
In an ACOSS National Sector Brief released today, organisations report a series of acute and direct impacts caused by the current fuel price rises to essential service delivery as well as to people experiencing poverty, disadvantage and hardship. Reports are now being made of workers unable to travel to clients due to fuel costs, volunteers struggling to attend, and food and emergency relief supply chains under pressure.
People are missing critical medical appointments, while aged care, disability support, mental health care and domestic violence response services are starting to struggle to maintain continuity of care.
Services are concerned about the risk of increasing incidents of domestic, family and sexual violence due to travel limitations and financial pressures.
First Nations communities and people living in regional and remote areas are amongst the hardest already hit, with diesel access that is essential to remote community infrastructure, proving increasingly difficult to secure.
ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said the current pressures have exposed just how essential community services are to Australia's national resilience and the people who rely on them.
"We must focus now on the important measures needed to secure certainty for people most at risk, and the critical services who support them.
"Our members are reporting staff who can't get to clients, volunteers not showing up, and food supply chains breaking down. This is happening while multiple states and territories are simultaneously dealing with extreme weather events," Dr Goldie said.
"Community services are critical to the fabric of our society. They are the safety net that people doing it toughest rely on for food, care and safety.
"When fuel prices spike and supply dries up, it is those services and the people they support who are hit the hardest and fastest. They are doing the best they can, but they expect the situation to deteriorate even further in coming weeks."
Dr Goldie said governments must recognise that working with community services must be central to the national response to impacts of the global conflict.
"Organisations have been undertaking contingency planning and are making hard decisions with little to no support," Dr Goldie said.
"People on low incomes were already doing it tough before conflict in the Middle East broke out and they cannot be left to absorb these shocks without vital support.
"We need immediate, targeted income relief for people most at risk, direct support for community organisations facing higher operational costs and guaranteed supply for the communities most affected. We are urging the government to work with our sector to put in place the measures needed for people doing it the toughest and the essential community services which so many rely upon."
See the National Sector Brief for all measures proposed. ACOSS is calling on the Federal Government to, amongst other measures:
- Target financial support to people on the lowest incomes first, for example, lift income support payments such as JobSeeker and Youth Allowance to at least $600 per week
- Immediately increase the Remote Area Allowance for communities facing acute price spikes
- Provide direct financial support for community organisations to manage rising operational costs
- Ensure frontline community service workers are included in any essential worker exemptions under potential fuel rationing or transport restrictions
- Prioritise Aboriginal and Community Controlled Organisations in regional, rural and remote areas for financial assistance.
