Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Anglicare NT CEO Dave Pugh on cost on living pressures amid rising inflation

Transcript

Anglicare NT CEO Dave Pugh on cost on living pressures amid rising inflation · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, as we know, and as you may have heard
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: in the news nationally, inflation is running at the fastest
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pace in more than two decades. So when the GST
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  Speaker 1: was raised, many prices rose obviously by ten percent overnight,
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunately we're in a similar situation right now. So
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  Speaker 1: consumer prices rose six point one percent for the year
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  Speaker 1: to June. That is the highest since June two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and one. Now, housing, construction, furniture, fuel, they've all contributed
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  Speaker 1: to the cost of living on the rise over that
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  Speaker 1: quarter as well. We know that there is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of things contributing to the cost of living right now,
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  Speaker 1: and it's having a massive impact on so many people,
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  Speaker 1: particularly here in the Northern Territory. Now joining me on
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  Speaker 1: the line to talk a little bit more about the
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  Speaker 1: impact that it's having in the territory is Dave pw
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  Speaker 1: the anglic CEO. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Dave, Good Morningdi.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Dave.
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  Speaker 1: Now we know that cost of living in the territory,
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  Speaker 1: it is high, there's no other way to put it.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of impact is it having from your perspective
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  Speaker 1: through the services which angler care run.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Thanks for asking Katie you look, the cost of
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  Speaker 2: living is high and in fact are with higher than
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  Speaker 2: just about anywhere in states. Will certainly it's gone up
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  Speaker 2: email thought two percent. So we're really concerned about this
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  Speaker 2: impact many of the clients we work with at Anglice
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  Speaker 2: here and so people on fixed incomes or on minimum wages,
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  Speaker 2: and we know that they basically got nothing left at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the at the end of the week.
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  Speaker 2: And so now you know, such beg rises. We're seeing
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  Speaker 2: people increase number of people coming to us, are asking
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  Speaker 2: us for support with particular food and fuel relief. We
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  Speaker 2: do have a smaller amount of mutcy relief. That's is
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  Speaker 2: There are many other agencies who do this kind of work.
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  Speaker 2: Of course the Salvation Army into the call of food
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  Speaker 2: cost of this work, but they're all being significant in pieces.
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  Speaker 2: The Food Bank is another awesome organization, as are well known.
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  Speaker 2: It's really hard with people just saying, look with the
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  Speaker 2: teot's gone up ten percent the last year. Certainly this
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  Speaker 2: last last quarter he's gone up thirty two percent a year.
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  Speaker 2: They are really been good.
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  Speaker 1: Had now, Dave, I know that when we sort of
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  Speaker 1: talk about the cost of living and talk about different
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  Speaker 1: service providers, sometimes for people listening, they actually think, oh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that would never be me. I've got a
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  Speaker 1: job and you know, I live in a secure home
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  Speaker 1: or I'm renting a property. But I think over the
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  Speaker 1: last couple of years as well, what we have seen
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  Speaker 1: is is some people who do have a job and
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  Speaker 1: you know, have previously not had issues with paying their
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  Speaker 1: rent and covering their living expenses have reached a point where,
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  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it's become incredibly difficult and they have
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  Speaker 1: reached that emergency sort of situation.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. We've seen more people on incomes minimum wages particularly,
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  Speaker 2: but people who are used to being able to make
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  Speaker 2: ends meat coming in and asking for help would look
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  Speaker 2: to you twenty percent increase in the cost of the
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  Speaker 2: dwelling in the last year, building cost of line through
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  Speaker 2: the roof mortgage class are now going up, of course,
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  Speaker 2: because of inflation and the Reserve Bank decisions. People who
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  Speaker 2: were just making ends meat and you know, considered about
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  Speaker 2: a third of the population do go from court a
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  Speaker 2: fortnight to fortnite. That's suddenly changed, you know, an extra
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  Speaker 2: two hundred months out of out of their pocket because
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  Speaker 2: of their mortgage, and an extra one hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 2: a fortnight out of their pocket because of food and fuel.
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  Speaker 2: People are starting to really serve a rub And we
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  Speaker 2: did a survey and Australia who were part of did
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  Speaker 2: a survey just before the election. The two thirds of
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  Speaker 2: Stadians believe that income should be increased with the cost
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  Speaker 2: of living changes. Of of course, most basic people in fifteen
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  Speaker 2: comes from several ink need to be able to follow
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  Speaker 2: the cost of living increases and already belt of the
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  Speaker 2: poverty line. So look, I don't know how people make
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  Speaker 2: ends meet. We do know that a significant number of
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  Speaker 2: the clients we work with skip on meals in order
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  Speaker 2: to get the kids to skill, and they skimp on
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  Speaker 2: other costs. And they just each week coming into us
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  Speaker 2: and saying, where can I find this extra money in
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  Speaker 2: my budget? I don't know what to do.
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  Speaker 1: What a terribly difficult situation to be in. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: when you look at things like those petrol prices, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: for a lot of us we think, oh, wow, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this is having a big impact. It means that I'm
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  Speaker 1: paying fifty dollars a fortnight or whatever more than you know,
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  Speaker 1: what I might have previously. But for some people it's
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's breaking point.
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  Speaker 2: It is. It is tipping pointant people are, you know,
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  Speaker 2: starting to max out their credit cards. It's one of
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  Speaker 2: the areas where of course you need emergency release, but
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  Speaker 2: you also need I think many people benefit from a
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  Speaker 2: financial counselor who actually knows how to go through people's budgets.
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  Speaker 2: People go through their their bank statements. Is surprising. How
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  Speaker 2: just go to a bank statement you can you can
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  Speaker 2: see to how tired it is for people where they
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  Speaker 2: so yeah, sometimes we just work with people and they
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  Speaker 2: maxed out credit cards to say, let's go back to
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  Speaker 2: the bank. Let's renegotiate this. You're paying a high interest rate.
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  Speaker 2: Can we can we look at it and negotiated outcome,
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  Speaker 2: and that the banks are helpful. They do their best.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you go and approach them in the right way,
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  Speaker 2: but with the answers Here is is big for us
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  Speaker 2: with as a country with un invested in social housing,
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  Speaker 2: with uninvested I think in in our several payments because
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  Speaker 2: people are below the poverty line. Yes, so we you
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  Speaker 2: know those service at these times, Katie, how important some
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  Speaker 2: of our great national institutions like free public health, is
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  Speaker 2: free public education, Thank heaven for those at least are
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  Speaker 2: working in our country.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah your spot on now. Day four people listening this
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  Speaker 1: morning who maybe don't know exactly what services ANGL Care provide.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe they are listening this morning and thinking, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I am struggling, I'm finding it tough. I'm one of
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  Speaker 1: those people that you know is foregoing different meals throughout
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  Speaker 1: the week so I can get the kids to school.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about what anglic Care
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  Speaker 1: do and some of those services that are provided.
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  Speaker 2: Well. One of the great things about the move in church.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you about anglic here too. But one of
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  Speaker 2: the great things that our MP is that we're small
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  Speaker 2: enough that every service provider knows each other. So if
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  Speaker 2: a person was thring you ANGL Care and see reception
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  Speaker 2: and say look, I need help, day might get a
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  Speaker 2: service in ANGL Care. And we provide financial counseling and
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  Speaker 2: disability support, and homelessness support and family counseling. Us a
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  Speaker 2: lot of work with young people. But the fowning our
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  Speaker 2: reception is that you get referred to the right face.
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  Speaker 2: And because it is a bit complicated, Katy, we don't
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  Speaker 2: know all the services that are most people, you don't
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  Speaker 2: need to know that. It's only when you have a
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  Speaker 2: really tough time and everybody, let's face it, everyone has
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  Speaker 2: a tough time at some point. You know, it might
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  Speaker 2: be a mental health issue and you really just need
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  Speaker 2: to need a referral to a headspace service and angler
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  Speaker 2: Care runs, or it might be another agency. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's good for people to know. Look, I can ring reception.
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  Speaker 2: I might not get the answer straight away, and I
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  Speaker 2: will get that I will be pointed in the right direction.
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  Speaker 1: That is good to know. And I know that, like
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  Speaker 1: I said, for some people listening this morning, they will
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  Speaker 1: be thinking to themselves. You know, I need to get
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  Speaker 1: in contact with anglic Care and try to get pointed
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  Speaker 1: in the right direction. Dave, before I let you go.
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  Speaker 1: You know, with these inflation rates, the highest that they've
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  Speaker 1: been in twenty one years, the impact obviously on the
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  Speaker 1: cost of living for Territorians and Australians. You know what
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  Speaker 1: measures from anglic Care's perspective, could be happening on a
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  Speaker 1: federal and territory level, you know, through our politicians and
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  Speaker 1: through our governments to try and make some headway in
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  Speaker 1: this space.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was a really good decision recently by fair
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  Speaker 2: Word Australia to increase the minimum weight, and I think
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  Speaker 2: that that was really helpful. We've seen that the pensions
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  Speaker 2: and allowances from civil and increase in half percent. That's good,
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  Speaker 2: but it's not keeping up to six point one percent increase.
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  Speaker 2: So we do need to see the federal government say, look,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to use CPI are we going to use
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  Speaker 2: these new figures as the basis for a minimum salaries.
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  Speaker 2: I do think the NT is you need in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the challenges we face twice the lady view, homelessness
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  Speaker 2: and all those other challenges. I think that federal government
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  Speaker 2: needs to treat the NT, not based on population, but
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  Speaker 2: based on need. The government can't afford to appass all
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  Speaker 2: the challenges in the NT. We do need federal government
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  Speaker 2: support significantly, and they tend to fund amurban territory issues
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  Speaker 2: on a per capita basis. That's not good enough. We
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  Speaker 2: really need them to step up and say the MT
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  Speaker 2: has got special needs and we need to address it
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  Speaker 2: on a needs basis.
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  Speaker 1: Well dive to the Anglican CEO. We really appreciate your
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: time this morning. Thank you so very much for having
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  Speaker 1: a chat with us. Thank you