THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
SYDNEY
FRIDAY, 18 JULY 2025
Topics: New funding for people doing it tough; Mark Latham; Prime Minister’s China visit.
RONNI KHAN AO: My name's Ronni Kahn, I'm the founder of OzHarvest and we are here in our Waterloo Market. Actually, this week, celebrating five years of giving away perfectly beautiful surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste. And I can share with you that when we opened this free supermarket, 100 people came a day, and right now there are more than 500 people coming each day snaking around the block. I have never seen the need as great. So, while we are incredibly grateful for this round of funding, I can share that there are still 1,200 charities on the wait list. And our charities that we support tell us that they do not have enough food, that there’s a 50% uplift in their need. And we just are not managing to service, the need and the demand that is out there. Cost of living is eating into 3.4 million households of Australia that require food relief every single year.
ALISON COVINGTON AM: So, my name's Alison Covington, and I'm proud to say that I'm the founder and managing director of Good360 Australia. We're a charity who matches brand new goods to people in need all across the country. So, we're so proud to join with the food charities here today to say that we are a recipient of this funding. We support one person every minute here in Australia, and the cost‑of‑living crisis has been huge. So, we call it the silent crisis, so it's people now need help more than ever, so we provide goods that could be clothing, toiletries, furniture. All those goods that support the food people receive, but they also get all those other goods. So, this funding's going to help us help more people, so one person every minute needs help here in Australia. Which is really sad, but we want to help more people, so this funding's going to be able to do that. So, we can announce that for the first time emergency relief is actually going to mean more than just food, it's actually going to mean that we can help them with toiletries and all those everyday essentials. So, thank you so much that we're included in this funding.
DANIEL MOORFIELD: Hi, I'm Daniel Moorfield, I'm CEO of SecondBite. What we do is we rescue food and give food back to people in need right now. It's really tough right now because we have so many people needing food. To have this support means so much for us for the people who need this food right now. When we look at it, we feed over half a million Australians each week, which is incredible when you think of what food we have in Australia at the moment. So, getting this food in means more than just getting food in, it actually helps those people in need create connections, create family, all those things – sense of joy, which they miss. Us being able to have this money means we can get enough food to create those moments of joy, and we really appreciate the support on this. Thank you.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Okay. I'm so very delighted to be here at OzHarvest and Waterloo today. I was with Ronni Kahn more than 20 years ago at the very first OzHarvest event, at the launch of OzHarvest, and I think then I said "from little things big things grow", Ronni, and you have certainly proved that right.
I'm very pleased that the Albanese Government is today announcing $460 million over the next five years to support Australians at their toughest moments.
In fact, when it comes to food relief funding we'll see a doubling of food relief funding, and that means organisations like OzHarvest and SecondBite will be able to share more food, share more meals, help more people, when they need it most.
And for the first time, Good360 will be receiving government funding, and that means help with things like toothpaste and all the basics of life that many Australians are deciding between putting food on the table or buying toothpaste for the kids. We don't want Australians to be facing those sorts of decisions.
We're seeing a substantial increase in funding over the next five years, but we know that this comes at a time when many Australians are continuing to struggle. This is just one of the things that the Government's doing to take pressure off Australian families.
We're proud of the fact in a we've seen the minimum wage increase by about $9,000 since we came to Government. We've seen pensions increase by more than $4,000 a year since coming to Government. We've seen cheaper medicines, cheaper childcare, fee‑free TAFE, university debt relief, electricity bill relief. All of those measures are designed to take pressure off Australians because we know they're doing it tough.
I'm also so proud of the fact that the Government is supporting the food relief charities and Good360 because not only are we helping people when they're struggling, we're also making a big difference to the Australian environment. Keeping perfectly good products out of landfill is a win for Australians, a win for the cost of living. It’s also a win for the environment.
As well as food relief funding, today we're also announcing funding for financial counselling and gambling counselling because the relief that people receive day‑to‑day is important, but being able to set yourself up financially for the future and tackle big financial drains like problem gambling is also really important for being able to manage their finances in the long‑term, and setting themselves up for the future.
Any questions?
JOURNALIST: Minister, Mark Latham's portrait still hangs in the Caucus Room, the Labor Caucus Room in Canberra. Do you think it should still be there given the recent allegations?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, Mark Latham hasn't been a member of the Labor Party for 20 years, and I'm sure that there are plenty of people scratching their heads about his portrait being up in the Caucus Room and giving consideration to whether it's appropriate or not.
Mark Latham's behaviour in the State Parliament is really something that would get him sacked from any other workplace. It is extraordinary to see that a man with his record ‑ I mean Mark Latham said that Rosie Batty, Australian of the Year, who had lost her son in the most tragic domestic violence circumstances, he said that she is waging a war on men. He is the guy that says that men hit women as a coping mechanism. He is the guy that picked up bunch of teenage school kids when they made an International Women's Day video.
I think it is extraordinary that he was elected to the New South Wales Parliament in the first place with his sort of track record, and the voters who put him there I'm sure would be really experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse when they look at his behaviour; the way that he is spending his time in Parliament certainly is not delivering value for taxpayers' dollars, and would be getting sacked in any other workplace.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that New South Wales should look at changing laws to make it easier to expel members, or do you think that sets a dangerous precedent?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, that's a matter for the New South Wales Parliament. They need to work out how to deal with the behaviours. It's a separate Parliament, I'm in the Federal Parliament. The New South Wales Parliament will have to make the decision, but I think New South Wales parliamentarians have been really clear that this behaviour does not represent the standards that they expect of their colleagues.
JOURNALIST: Minister, Mark Latham almost became our Prime Minister. Did you see any evidence of him disrespecting women?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Do you know, I've been a Member of Parliament for a long time, and the only time I remember going home and having a little cry after work was the day that Mark Latham was elected as leader of the Australian Labor Party because I didn't see evidence of this sort of behaviour back in the day, but I always had my doubts about him as a political figure, and I think those doubts have only increased in recent decades as his behaviour has become worse and more extreme.
JOURNALIST: On to some other business of the day, on the Port of Darwin, why shouldn't the Chinese company operate the Port of Darwin, and are there concerns that banning them will bring back trade bans Beijing?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we're very proud of the fact that as a Government we have restored $20 billion worth of trade with China. That's been absolutely vital for Australian farmers and businesses. One in four Australian jobs depends on trade, and China is our largest trading partner. Stabilising the relationship has been important particularly for our farmers, our grain growers, our wine makers, our lobster fishermen. It has been a very important step to stabilise the trading relationship with China, and the fact that the Prime Minister is in China at the moment shows the Australian Government’s commitment to making sure that it continues to be a strong economic relationship.
The Prime Minister's had a roundtable about our iron ore exports to China. The iron ore that Australia exports is the largest source of foreign iron ore in China. We know how important steelmaking is for the modern economy.
The Prime Minister's visited a tourism business. Chinese tourism to Australia is the largest source of tourism by value, it's worth more than $9 billion a year already.
And so, people should see the potential benefits of increasing China's tourism to Australia. The hundreds of millions or billions of dollars of extra spending it will feed into the Australian economy as we see Chinese tourism increase.
On the Port of Darwin, the Prime Minister has made the position of the Australian Government very clear. Our position, and the Labor Party's position when we were in Opposition and the position now that we're in Government has always been that the Port of Darwin should not have been leased in the way that it was to a business with links to the Chinese Government.
JOURNALIST: Just on the UK at the moment, that they'll be dropping the voting age from 18 to 16 for the next general election; is that something you'd support here in Australia?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I know a lot of 16‑year‑olds who are passionately interested in politics and who follow it and are involved and volunteer, and if not for political parties acting in their community, so I think there's a lot of 16‑year‑olds out there who take a very keen interest in politics, and I encourage them to get involved and get active in any way they can.
JOURNALIST: Minister, sorry, to go back to China just very quickly. Is the Government concerned about Chinese interest in the ports of Newcastle and the ports of Canberra?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I'm not going to make further comments on that. The Prime Minister's had a very successful visit to China, he's made it very clear that we will work with China where we can, we'll disagree where we must, and we're very pleased with the fact that we've stabilised the relationship. China is now a major trading partner and absolutely critical to the success of the Australian economy.
JOURNALIST: Last question on OzHarvest and what's happening here very quickly. Just with food wastage, we know so much food gets thrown out and it's edible and it's good quality. What measures can we make to ensure that food that's good can still get to customers and we’re not wasting as much as we are.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, that's why we're so very pleased to have doubled support for organisations like OzHarvest, in fact OzHarvest will have its funding triple. That's a great way of making sure that we can keep really good quality food out of landfill, that it's filling the tummies of Australians who need not just the support to put food on the table, but also the sense of community and connection, that organisations like OzHarvest, like SecondBite and like Foodbank provide. And for the first time, to be supporting Good360 to make sure that consumer that are perfectly good don't end up in landfill. That's terrific for the Australian environment, and it's good for family’s budgets.
JOURNALIST: Just returning ‑‑
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Sorry, just one other thing on this. When the Liberals had the chance, they actually cut funding for organisations like this by $20 million. So being able to support increased funding at a time when Australians are doing it tough is something that I'm very proud of.
JOURNALIST: Just very briefly returning to Mark Latham, you've acknowledged obviously that State Parliament is a different beast, but in your opinion, what do you think the New South Wales Government ‑ what sort of action do you think they should take against him?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, it really is a matter for the New South Wales Parliament to deal with the behaviour of New South Wales parliamentarians, but I’d say though that there are a lot of voters looking on at these reports and really wondering ‑ well, I don't think they're wondering anymore ‑ they're really questioning the value for money that they get from paying the wage of someone who doesn't seem to be doing the sort of work you expect from a Member of Parliament when he's sitting in the chamber and conducting the business of Parliament.
Thank you all.
ENDS
