Thursday, 4 May 2023

Richmond electorate community organisations

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (17:23): (157) My adjournment is for the Treasurer, and the action I seek is to review the funding model and adequately fund our crucial community organisations. Now more than ever the people in my electorate of Richmond are relying on community organisations for support, for advocacy and for advice. Richmond is home to some incredible, crucial community organisations like Cohealth, the Wellington, North Richmond Community Health, Fitzroy Legal Service and the Victorian Public Tenants Association. Others, like the disability resource centre and Women with Disabilities Victoria, provide important advocacy and services to the people of Richmond and across Victoria. But in my short time as the member for Richmond I have heard from countless organisations who are struggling to meet the ever increasing demand for their services with short-term and inadequate project-based funding.

With the state budget set to be released shortly I have written a number of letters of support to the ministers of this government seeking funding for organisations that do critical work for our local community and also for the statewide services based in Richmond that provide support to thousands of people across Victoria. The reality is that these organisations are perpetually battling with uncertainty. With the current lapsing funding model they cannot employ ongoing staff and they cannot plan programs for more than a year or two because they just do not know whether they will be able to pay for them into the future.

These critical organisations should not have to jump through hoops every year and be biting their nails every state budget. They achieve so much with their little and insecure funding. The result of this is not just on the organisations, but it hurts our community – their ability to seek support as tenants, their capacity to flee family violence, their ability to access the health care that they need and their basic rights to a home, to safety and to health. I call on the Treasurer therefore to support these organisations to do their best work with ongoing substantial core funding.