DEAN SMITH: Labor has turned its back on struggling Australians, ignoring a solution to the food crisis

Across the country, household budgets are at breaking point.

Persistent inflation and stagnant wages have plagued the Australian economy for two years under Labor.

The effects of this cost-of-living crisis are being felt far and wide.

For many, it has meant cancelling a gym membership or skipping a haircut to help keep up with rent or mortgage repayments.

But for thousands of Australians, no number of sacrifices — big or small — is putting food on the table.

If you’re in any doubt about the magnitude of food insecurity in our community, call into your local food relief charity.

When I last visited Foodbank at Perth Airport, I saw a line of people waiting to access support that stretched out the door.

The demographics of those seeking this assistance might surprise you.

Foodbank’s 2024 Hunger Report found that 32 per cent of Australian households — or 3.4 million — experienced food insecurity in the year to October.

Thirty per cent of them own their own home with a mortgage.

Many also have two incomes.

They are also going to confronting lengths to manage this growing hunger.

Sixty-three per cent of respondents to a survey linked to the Salvation Army Australia’s Red Shield Report had skipped meals.

Twenty-seven per cent had consumed expired or spoiled food.

These figures are not just statistics, they are a stark reminder of the human cost of this crisis.

The recently released final report of the Senate Cost of Living Committee, leaves the reader — and the Federal Parliament — in no doubt about the urgency of the situation.

It reveals that not only is Australia in a per capita recession for the sixth consecutive quarter, but also that Australian households have experienced the largest fall in disposable incomes across OECD nations over the past two years.

The committee, of which I was a member, found that the temporary economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have largely subsided.

It is now the Albanese Government’s fiscal choices that are driving inflation.

These homegrown inflationary pressures have forced the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates higher for longer, compounding financial pain for households.

Yet, despite the evidence and repeated warnings from experts, Labor has turned its back on struggling Australians.

It is also overlooking our hardworking charities sector, which is literally keeping people alive.

These charities and not for profits are experiencing unprecedented demand in an environment of rapidly rising overheads and falling donations — fighting, in many cases, for their own survival.

That brings me to the Tax Laws Amendment (Incentivising Food Donations to Charitable Organisations) Bill 2024, which I introduced as a Private Senator’s Bill earlier this year.

It provides a tax offset to companies donating surplus food and associated activities, including transport, to charities.

This is a common sense, targeted and time limited policy designed to tackle two issues: food insecurity and food wastage.

Sadly, while so many Australians are going hungry, the nation is dumping more than 7.6 million tonnes of food annually — most of it edible.

This is because it is often cheaper for food to be ploughed back into the ground or thrown into landfill than to be donated.

We recently held a Senate inquiry into my Bill, including a public hearing held in Canberra.

Witnesses described the tax incentive’s potential as “game-changing” and recommended Parliament “have a good, hard look at itself” for failing to adopt this tax incentive sooner.

Representatives of food relief charities and primary producers noted that the Bill would ease pressure on households and support overstretched charities.

It would also reduce costs for farmers facing another Labor-created problem — the cost of doing business crisis.

The Bill builds on a concept originally developed by Foodbank Australia and its partners, and economically modelled for them by KPMG.

The tax incentive itself is supported by more than 60 food industry organisations and other businesses, who wrote to the Treasurer more than a year ago asking him to support it.

He still has not answered.

That is not all Labor has ignored — the House Standing Committee on Agriculture, which is dominated by Albanese Government MPs, backed the tax incentive in a report in November 2023.

A year on, despite overwhelming support that includes its own members, Labor has once again dismissed this important initiative and signalled that it will not support my Bill.

It claimed there were several risks, including the possibility the tax incentive might be taken up by major supermarkets.

For the record, both Coles and Woolworths have confirmed in writing they would not utilise it, but I will also make amendments to the Bill specifically blocking them.

The real reason is politics.

What makes this particularly unacceptable is that it is politics at the expense of people in desperate need.

It is also a refusal by the Albanese Government to acknowledge the dire situation it has put so many Australians and the charities supporting them in.

As we approach another Christmas, both deserve better.

They deserve a government that listens to experts, prioritises practical solutions, and takes proactive steps to ease the burden.

That is why Labor must either reconsider its position on my Bill or finally introduce its own policy to incentivise food donations and reduce waste.

In the meantime, I encourage Federal Labor parliamentarians — including those from WA — to visit a food relief charity.

They should witness what is happening there for themselves and start acting in the best interests of those they were elected to serve.

Dean Smith is a Liberal Senator for WA