Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bunjelung Calcottin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daly oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday,
Speaker 2: the twenty fourth of October.
Speaker 3: I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Billy fit Simon's and we are
Speaker 3: filling in for Sam and Zara for a couple of
Speaker 3: days this week, but we will be back to regular
Speaker 3: programming before you know it.
Speaker 2: This week Australia's largest food relief organization, Food Bank, released
Speaker 2: its annual Hunger Report, which found three point seven million
Speaker 2: Australian households have experienced some sort of food insecurity in
Speaker 2: the past year.
Speaker 4: What we're seeing is that food has become a discretionary
Speaker 4: item and for summer luxury item.
Speaker 2: In today's deep Dive, I'm speaking with this the CEO
Speaker 2: of Food Bank Australia, to find out what food insecurity
Speaker 2: is why the number of Australians experiencing it has increased
Speaker 2: and what can be done to change that? But first, Billy,
Speaker 2: what's making headlines?
Speaker 3: First Nations leaders involved in the Yes campaign have accused
Speaker 3: Australians of committing a shameful act by voting against an
Speaker 3: Indigenous voice in the failed referendum on October fourteenth. More
Speaker 3: than sixty percent of Australians voted No in the referendum.
Speaker 3: The statement from First Nations leaders marks the end of
Speaker 3: a week of silence to mourn the result. Prime Minister
Speaker 3: Anthony Alberanezi has not yet commented on the statement. However,
Speaker 3: he did say on Friday, we respect the outcome in
Speaker 3: our democracy.
Speaker 2: Financial losses to job and employment scams have increased by
Speaker 2: seven hundred and forty percent this year, according to the
Speaker 2: National Anti Scam Center. WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram have
Speaker 2: become key platforms for scammers pretending to be recruiters. The
Speaker 2: government is urging people to be on high alert for
Speaker 2: scammers actually if they're looking for a job, with Australian's
Speaker 2: reporting losses of twenty million dollars already this year to
Speaker 2: employment scams.
Speaker 3: And in a Daily os exclusive, thousands of Ozzie students
Speaker 3: will have part of their hextet waived due to a
Speaker 3: record keeping technicality. Over thirteen thousand students will have a
Speaker 3: combined five point four million dollars wiped from their student
Speaker 3: debt and this is because some students were unable to
Speaker 3: see their hextet records on the ATO website, so those
Speaker 3: impacted by the error won't need to pay the amount
Speaker 3: incurred through indexation for the past four years. For more
Speaker 3: on that story, you can visit our Instagram page.
Speaker 2: And today's good news. Australia has won the International Wheelchair
Speaker 2: Rugby Cup after defeating Canada at the finals in Paris.
Speaker 2: After losing to Canada in the opening game, Australia finished
Speaker 2: on top. What comeback. Riley Batt was one of the
Speaker 2: standout players for the Aussies in the fifty three forty
Speaker 2: eight win. Nearly four million Australian homes experienced food insecurity
Speaker 2: in the past year. That's according to Food Bank's annual
Speaker 2: Hunger Report, which published its latest findings this week. Brianna
Speaker 2: Case is the CEO of Food Bank Australia and she
Speaker 2: joins US Now to talk about these findings. Briana, welcome
Speaker 2: to the pod. Before we get into it, though, for
Speaker 2: those who are listening who might not be familiar with
Speaker 2: the concept, what is food insecurity?
Speaker 4: Food insecurity is essentially a spectrum. It can start with
Speaker 4: feeling anxious or worried about whether or not you've got
Speaker 4: enough money to actually put a meal on the table,
Speaker 4: through to the more moderate form of food in security,
Speaker 4: which is about making compromises on the type and quantity
Speaker 4: of food that you're eating, right through to severe food insecurity,
Speaker 4: which is skipping meals or going entire days without eating.
Speaker 4: And the reality is right now three point seven million
Speaker 4: households across Australia have experienced food and security in the
Speaker 4: last twelve months, and to put that into perspective, that's
Speaker 4: more than the total number of households in Melbourne and
Speaker 4: Sydney combined.
Speaker 2: That is a really significant number. How do those findings
Speaker 2: differ from previous years? Have you seen any big changes
Speaker 2: in the twenty twenty three findings we have?
Speaker 4: This year is quite different for a number of reasons. One,
Speaker 4: we've seen a three hundred and eighty three thousand household
Speaker 4: increase in the number of households experiencing food and security,
Speaker 4: so a very very significant jump, but also a very
Speaker 4: significant change in what food in security looks like and
Speaker 4: who's experiencing it. What we've seen with this year's Food
Speaker 4: Bank Hunger Report is that seventy seven percent of households
Speaker 4: are experiencing food and security for the very first time,
Speaker 4: and they skew younger. So we're seeing more and more
Speaker 4: people under the age of forty five. We're seeing people
Speaker 4: who are employed. In fact, sixty percent of food and
Speaker 4: secure households have a job. And we're also seeing food
Speaker 4: and security impacting mid to high income earners. So this
Speaker 4: notion that a job is a shield again food and
Speaker 4: security in Australia, we've shot that to pieces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about that
Speaker 2: group of people, you know, younger people, people on decent
Speaker 2: in inverticoma's incomes being in this report for the first time,
Speaker 2: How has cost of living impacted food in security in Australia.
Speaker 4: What we've seen this year is that for the vast majority,
Speaker 4: about eighty percent of households, it is the cost of
Speaker 4: living crisis. What we're seeing with hunger in Australia is
Speaker 4: the harsh realities of what the cost of living crisis
Speaker 4: looks like in the home, and it's not hard to
Speaker 4: understand why. We know that a third of people with
Speaker 4: a mortgage are now experiencing some level of food in security,
Speaker 4: and we know that half of renters are experiencing food
Speaker 4: and security as well. So when we look at housing
Speaker 4: and homelessness, when we look at utilities costs, when we
Speaker 4: look at the cost of buying food and groceries, transport costs,
Speaker 4: petrol costs, it all adds up. And the reality is
Speaker 4: what we might have been able to cover with one
Speaker 4: income before, we're now needing one and a half two
Speaker 4: incomes to cover. What we are seeing and hearing increasingly
Speaker 4: at food bank is people working a full time, as
Speaker 4: you said, a good job during the day, but they're
Speaker 4: having to work a side hustle at night. It's often
Speaker 4: in the gig economy because unfortunately, when your expenses are
Speaker 4: outpacing your income, it's not hard to do the math.
Speaker 4: So what we're seeing is that food has become a
Speaker 4: discretionary item and for some a luxury item.
Speaker 2: How does that impact the rest of people's lives. What's
Speaker 2: the flow on effect of not knowing for certain whether
Speaker 2: you can put food on the table, you know, psychologically, physically,
Speaker 2: how does that impact everyone.
Speaker 4: There's a few things that are deeply concerning us this year.
Speaker 4: One is that we know about half of those experiencing
Speaker 4: food and security have reduced their consumption and purchasing of
Speaker 4: fresh fruit and vegetables and protein. So when we think
Speaker 4: about the health and dietary nutrition implications of this, I'm
Speaker 4: really concerned about what that means from a physical health
Speaker 4: point of view. And let's bear in mind those half
Speaker 4: who've reduced it are coming from a low base, so
Speaker 4: we're already only accessing the smallest amount. But also, as
Speaker 4: you indicated, the mental health implications here are really significant.
Speaker 4: And when you are dealing with this feeling and the
Speaker 4: pit of your stomach not only hunger, but also this
Speaker 4: worry and anxiety about whether or not you're going to
Speaker 4: be able to eat today, tomorrow, next week, and when
Speaker 4: we are talking about younger households, what's concerning me at
Speaker 4: the moment is younger households with young children who are
Speaker 4: living in now quite vulnerable circumstances, and the guilt associated
Speaker 4: with not being able to provide for your young child
Speaker 4: is huge, and it's one of the reasons We are
Speaker 4: trying so hard at Food Bank to highlight that we
Speaker 4: are here to help you. Food Bank is here. It's
Speaker 4: what we do best. And what absolutely crushes my spirit
Speaker 4: is when I hear people who are not reaching out
Speaker 4: and asking for food relief when they so clearly need
Speaker 4: it because a they're embarrassed or worried or ashamed, or
Speaker 4: b they think someone else deserves it more than they do.
Speaker 4: I'm here to tell you if you can't afford to
Speaker 4: put a meal on the table routinely, you need food relief.
Speaker 4: And it's precisely why we're here. And it's as simple
Speaker 4: as jumping on our website, clicking a fine food button
Speaker 4: and you will find food relief near you.
Speaker 2: Are you finding, especially with the amount of young people
Speaker 2: that we've seen in these findings this year, are you
Speaker 2: worried about that stigma continuing on?
Speaker 4: We are. We know when we look at who is
Speaker 4: experiencing hunger in Australia, we know that only about a
Speaker 4: quarter or actively reaching out to formal food relief organizations
Speaker 4: like Food Bank. We know about a third are reaching
Speaker 4: out to family, friends, loved ones, neighbors for help. But
Speaker 4: there's a half sitting out there not getting any help
Speaker 4: at all, and we need to make sure we break
Speaker 4: down some of these barriers to what's stopping people accessing
Speaker 4: food relief. Absolutely, shame and stigma is part of it,
Speaker 4: and I really hope that conversations like the one we're
Speaker 4: having right now help people understand there's no shame or
Speaker 4: stigma here. Life gets in the way for everyone, and
Speaker 4: I think if we think back to COVID, we all
Speaker 4: knew someone who lost hours, lost employment, had something happen
Speaker 4: through no fault of your own, and you found yourself
Speaker 4: in really difficult circumstances. Right now, the demand for food
Speaker 4: relief is higher than it was at the height of COVID.
Speaker 4: So if you think you're alone here, I'm here to
Speaker 4: tell you you're not. We are fast approaching a scenario
Speaker 4: where one into Australian households will know what food insecurity
Speaker 4: means and is because it's touched them themselves. And it's
Speaker 4: important to recognize this isn't happening every day for many people.
Speaker 4: This might be a one off. It might be every
Speaker 4: now and then. It might be those final three or
Speaker 4: four days before payday when you suddenly realize you can't
Speaker 4: go out for lunch. With your office mates because you
Speaker 4: don't have the funds to do that, where you might
Speaker 4: be grabbing some morning tea in the tea room because
Speaker 4: that's going to be your only meal that day. That
Speaker 4: is food insecurity. That is happening to an increasing number
Speaker 4: of people, and you need food relief and that's what
Speaker 4: we're here for.
Speaker 2: Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Speaker 2: Is this a trend being seen elsewhere or is the
Speaker 2: situation particularly bad here and why would that be?
Speaker 4: It is definitely something that shocks people to think that
Speaker 4: right here in the lucky country, we've got three point
Speaker 4: seven million households who at some point haven't known where
Speaker 4: their next meal was coming from. It's also quite confronting
Speaker 4: when we think about the fact that each and every
Speaker 4: year we produce enough food in this country to feed
Speaker 4: our population three times over, yet we've got a hunger problem.
Speaker 4: We also have a food waste problem. Incidentally, it's costing
Speaker 4: our economy thirty six point six billion dollars each year,
Speaker 4: and seventy percent of the food that is wasted is
Speaker 4: perfectly edible. So we've got this ridiculous situation where we
Speaker 4: have enough food but it's not getting to the right places.
Speaker 4: And when we do look globally, yes, unfortunately we are
Speaker 4: seeing food in security reaching rates it never has before
Speaker 4: in both developed and developing nations. But when we look
Speaker 4: at the geopolitical landscape right now, my food banking counterparts
Speaker 4: in the Middle East, my food banking counterparts in Northern America,
Speaker 4: they're seeing very similar challenges to us right now. But
Speaker 4: there are various different policies and laws that can help
Speaker 4: alleviate food and security and then address it. And we've
Speaker 4: been very strident with government in highlighting the fact that
Speaker 4: the evidence is clear. We have a Food Bank Hunger
Speaker 4: Report that shows what rates of food and security we
Speaker 4: have in Australia and what we can do about it,
Speaker 4: because denying that we have a hunger problem is not
Speaker 4: going to help us fix it.
Speaker 2: Is there a way to simultaneously tackle both of these issues?
Speaker 2: You know this in normal most amount of food that's
Speaker 2: being wasted, paired with all of these Australians who are
Speaker 2: going hungry.
Speaker 4: Yes, and it's precisely what Food Bank does best. We
Speaker 4: work really closely with farmers, manufacturers and our retailers to
Speaker 4: rescue food that we know is perfectly edible and delicious.
Speaker 4: Quite often it doesn't look quite right. It might be
Speaker 4: the wonky fruit and vegetables that you see. We're talking
Speaker 4: about tomatoes that are the wrong shade of red and
Speaker 4: cucumbers that are a bit bendy. I don't care what
Speaker 4: they look like. They are still going to deliver wonderfully
Speaker 4: nutritious food. But only about seventy percent of our total
Speaker 4: food relief volumes that food make comes through that food rescue.
Speaker 4: The remainder we actually have to buy because when you
Speaker 4: work as we do in a surprise chain rather than
Speaker 4: a supply chain, we never know what we're going to
Speaker 4: have donated to us day in, day out. But there
Speaker 4: are certain products we need to have available year round.
Speaker 4: And when we know that fifty percent of people are
Speaker 4: reducing they're purchasing of fresh fruit and vegetables and protein,
Speaker 4: we know very clearly we're going to have to secure
Speaker 4: a lot more of both of those products, in particular
Speaker 4: to make sure that we can help people through this
Speaker 4: really tricky period.
Speaker 2: We might have people listening right now who are feeling
Speaker 2: like they do need the help that you've described. What
Speaker 2: can they do, What are the next steps for them
Speaker 2: to take? And then similarly, you know, we might have
Speaker 2: people listening who really want to help. What can they
Speaker 2: do in this situation?
Speaker 4: First port of call to answer both of those questions
Speaker 4: is to go to Foodbank dot org DODAU. If you
Speaker 4: are in need of food relief, click on a big
Speaker 4: button that says find food. It is as simple as that.
Speaker 4: Pop in your postcode and it will spit out some
Speaker 4: answers around where you can access food relief. And likewise,
Speaker 4: if you're in a position to donate, there's a donate
Speaker 4: now button. Every dollar donated is two meals created, and
Speaker 4: there has never been a more important time to support
Speaker 4: the community. I know that for many listeners out there
Speaker 4: they're not in a position to do that right now,
Speaker 4: but for those who are, please know you are going
Speaker 4: to be changing lives through that donation. And we are
Speaker 4: so proud of the work that we do at Food
Speaker 4: Bank that we can't do it without you. So to
Speaker 4: everyone who has been supporting us, whether that be through time,
Speaker 4: treasure or talent, thank you. We're so grateful.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us on the daily OS.
Speaker 3: And before you go, it would be so helpful if
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