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Speaker 1: Now Cash Converters and I imagine other pawn shop operators

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Speaker 1: say their profits their revenues at least, have jumped quite

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Speaker 1: incredibly over the last financial year. Cash Converters says in Australia,

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Speaker 1: New Zealand and the UK its overall revenue was up

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Speaker 1: twenty six percent to three hundred and eighty three million

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Speaker 1: dollars in the last financial year. So revenue up three

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty three million in one year now. They

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Speaker 1: attribute in a statement from their CEO says consumers experiencing

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Speaker 1: increased cost of living pressure at a time when mainstream

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Speaker 1: finances continue to become more difficult to manage. In normal speak,

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Speaker 1: there's not enough money for people to get by, so

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Speaker 1: they're pawning things. Someone who would not be surprised by

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Speaker 1: that at all at the pointy end of helping people

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Speaker 1: out or representing the organizations that do from Seykosts the

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Speaker 1: essay Council of Social Services, Ross Womersley.

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Speaker 2: Ross GOODMRN, Good morning Matthew.

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Speaker 3: No surprise at all, I imagine.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, But you know what a travesty that we're in

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Speaker 2: a context where the people are needing to use the

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Speaker 2: process of pawning things that they used to own in

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Speaker 2: an event to manage their circumstances the difficulty of their

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Speaker 2: current circumstances. So I just find it absolutely abhorrent that

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Speaker 2: we're in a situation where companies like you know, big companies,

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Speaker 2: like international companies like cash converters and other pawn industry holdings,

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Speaker 2: actually are making huge amounts of money out of the

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Speaker 2: enormous distress that many families are, particularly those families who

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Speaker 2: are on the low incomes across their community, are really experiencing.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's that, and I suppose if you're having to

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Speaker 1: use their services, you'd be thankful they're there to dispose

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Speaker 1: of what you might not want to get rid of

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Speaker 1: but need to get rid of. I mean, you've got

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Speaker 1: to do it somehow, don't you, if you need to

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Speaker 1: get by. And that's the travesty of it all.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean, and at its heart, I guess

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Speaker 2: we have to go back to this question about are

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Speaker 2: we providing a livable income for everybody, and particularly for

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Speaker 2: those people who can't necessarily be in the workforce as

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Speaker 2: much as they should, or aren't able to be in

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Speaker 2: the workforce even if they would want to, or who

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Speaker 2: have kind of become so disconnected. The pathway back to

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Speaker 2: engaging in the workforce is so very difficult, and so yeah,

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Speaker 2: I think this really does speak to something that we've

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Speaker 2: talked about repeatedly, and that's that we have to be

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Speaker 2: able to ensure that people on the lowest of incomes

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Speaker 2: across our community are getting the support that they require

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Speaker 2: at the times that they require it. And you and

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Speaker 2: I have to looked about the you know, the way

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Speaker 2: that costs all through our budgets are going up at

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Speaker 2: the moment. And that's all well and good if you're

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Speaker 2: someone like me who has a decent income and is

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Speaker 2: able to accommodate those kinds of cost increases. But if

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Speaker 2: ten dollars a week increase in your rent or a

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Speaker 2: fifty dollars a week increase in your rent is the

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Speaker 2: thing that tips you over the edge, then in fact,

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Speaker 2: you're going to be resorting to anything that you have

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Speaker 2: at your disposal to try and keep your head above water,

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Speaker 2: aren't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely you are.

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Speaker 1: And you know it's just it's terrible where agencies around

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Speaker 1: adelaide and talking with Chris Burns earlier in the week

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Speaker 1: on from the hut Street Center saying a twenty percent

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Speaker 1: increase in demand for their service. Just homelessness, and that's

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Speaker 1: just terrible in this day and age.

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Speaker 2: Well, and I guess it becomes it feels even more

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Speaker 2: acute when you think about people who are living in

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Speaker 2: the cars, or living in ten or living in you know,

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Speaker 2: not even with a tent over their head at night,

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Speaker 2: because the one way or another, things have gone so

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Speaker 2: badly wrong with them for them that they find themselves

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Speaker 2: in a situation where they don't have a roof over

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Speaker 2: their head. And so, yes, we are seeing right across

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Speaker 2: our community this continuing growth in people who are really

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Speaker 2: having a hard time. And I think it's just important

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Speaker 2: for all of us to think about, well, we need

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Speaker 2: to we need to be prepared to maintain our generosity

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Speaker 2: and our generous spirit as we're thinking about the circumstances

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Speaker 2: of those people, and to be prepared to call on

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Speaker 2: our governments to support people in the way that we

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Speaker 2: believe that they need to be supported.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, Ross, appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, You're more than welcome.

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Speaker 3: Matthew Ross Womersley there from Sekah