Foodbank hunger report – turning the temperature up on that donated tin of Sketti

The Foodbank Annual Hunger Report came out yesterday – one in three households now fall into the categories of food insecurity – kicking off the downhill to Christmas with the ramping up of the asks from Charities – including the Kmart / Salvos wishing tree (you know the one that Leigh gave the golden plated cheese platter to one year) 

A kitchen counter is covered with a large assortment of groceries and household items. In the foreground from left to right are a blue cloth, packaged carrots, a bag of 25 percent less carbs bread, a pink box of chocolates, a clear bag of wrapped green candies, a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a large plastic-wrapped loaf of Abbotts Bakery bread, and a bottle of Schweppes sparkling water. Behind them are multiple canned goods including four tins of tuna, jars of Dolmio pasta sauce and mayonnaise, a yellow container of Moccona coffee, a red box of Kellogg's Nutri Grain Protein Cereal, a white box fan, a wire basket holding oranges and green apples, a roll of paper towels, and a stainless steel utensil holder. A large blue patterned bag sits on the left side of the counter. The background shows a wooden chair, a bed with rumpled bedding, a purple storage bin with clothes, and a glass door leading outside. Visible text includes Kellogg's Nutri Grain Protein Cereal, 20 percent protein, Real nourishment, Abbotts Bakery, Ferrero Rocher, 25 percent less carbs, Dolmio, Moccona, Schweppes, and various other brand names on packaging. The scene is lit by indoor daylight.
Assorted discounted groceries from the church food pantry

It’s a frenzy of poverty porn – the “good” people able to afford to put a present under the tree, the parents having to be grateful for whatever some their way, a toy of someone else’s choice rather than the money to buy what the kids actually wanted this year. The calls for donations for hampers – both cash and items – with charities setting the prices for the ones they ship to the local distributive sites. – an amount that could well buy someone more of what they and their family actually wanted on their table if they were allowed to just have money rather than the layers of inefficiency that come with charities in this country. Four lollipops with googly eyes and drawn mouths stand in a row on a solid pink surface. From left to right: a red lollipop with a downturned mouth frowns, a green lollipop has a straight horizontal mouth, a yellow lollipop has a small round open mouth, and an orange lollipop smiles with an upturned mouth. To the left of the photograph, large black text reads THE HIDDEN HARMS OF FOOD BANKS. Below it, purple text reads How the NGO industrial complex keeps us poor. A date in the bottom right corner reads 6/23/2025. The image is a presentation slide.

Centrelink Cancellations also resumed yesterday – the ones they quietly switched off last year because they were either deemed illegal or they really thought it was only a matter of time til they were. Debts calculated through income-appointment are also being re-actioned after being on pause. More people on the edge, having their below the poverty line payments cancelled, paused or garnished. 

Groceries including a bag of green grapes, four red apples, a loaf of mixed grain bread, a loaf of white sandwich bread, two bags of baby cos lettuce, a bag of carrot sticks, and a bag of organic salad mix.
Free Groceries and bread

Because all these things will “turn down the temperature” as the phrase of the week after the attack on Helen Haines. A story from the Guardian over the weekend started to touch on the issues in “the regions” – all issues in the cities but magnified the further you are from the even thousand postcodes. The lack of mental and other healthcare, NDIS eligibility, and lack of staff to support such schemes when you do “qualify”.

Hunger does not affect everyone equally Beneath Australia’s overall food insecurity rate lies a widening divide between households with resources and those without. Where people live, how they are housed, whether they are healthy and the income available to them, all determine whether they can afford enough food. Only 12% of households that own their home outright experience food insecurity. Among renters that figure rises to 51%. National rents have increased 40.6% over the past five years due to the sustained cumulative increases. Renters are paying an additional $204 per week in rent. The previous five-year period (June 2016 to June 2021) only saw median rents rise by $55 per week, or 12.2%.

Renters are finally reaching their limits in what they can pay – which just forces those at the top of that pool into competing for the cheaper “less desirable” homes, pushing the pensioners and others on low incomes into the parks and carparks around town. A problem to be moved on. To be fought over whose problem it isn’t.

So, we’re tired, and hungry, lacking in access to health care and stable housing, but what does Foodbank suggest we do about the food insecurity part?

To meaningfully reduce food insecurity, Australia must: 1. Set a national baseline for School Breakfast Programs Establish a national minimum standard for school breakfast programs, ensuring every Australian child has access to a nutritious breakfast at school by 2030. 2. Increase investment in food relief Ensure food relief organisations have the resources required to meet growing demand and respond rapidly during periods of heightened economic hardship. 3. Improve access to food relief Increase awareness, availability and accessibility of support services, particularly in regional Australia. 4. Address income inadequacy Strengthen the financial safety net to ensure social security payments and household incomes better reflect the true cost of living. 5. Support renters and vulnerable households Develop targeted measures for renters, low-income households, people living with disability and other groups facing disproportionate risk.

AS always, they call for MORE food relief, to expand the footprint of, what I refer to as “Australia’s third (or fourth, have you tried shopping at Aldi?) supermarkets” – surely with so many people accessing Foodbank-supplied charities the reach of the purple supermarket is getting up there, especially when you add the fleet of yellow OzHarvest trucks moving veges from place to place? With the amount of money donated to and granted to these charities, it really doesn’t seem unviable to have  government subsidised or owned shops – take back the ownership over the money people are throwing into them already? It’s just that if it’s run by the government apparently it’s a bad thing and you need a layer of branding and staffing outside the APS to make it a good thing, actually. (I swear one of the unintended consequences of the NDIS was so many cringe names for support services). With the cost of diesel, the food and fuel miles must be adding up moving the food further than the intended point of purchase.

“Addressing income inadequacy” is how they’ve phrased raising welfare payments and ensuring wages keep up with the rapid increases in inflation on essential items. A reminder to the unionists – a livable welfare safety net only increases your bargaining power and boosts the wages of the poorest – many of whom are juggling welfare and work (as well as life and caring responsibilities). Housing – cost and availability, let alone suitability for an ageing and increasingly disabled population – is the HUGE issue not being addressed by current “affordable housing” and private investment. 

As an aside – love me a good school breakfast program. Both for getting kids learning and taking pressure off families. But like all programs how do you cater for our loveable quirky kids who only eat dry home brand Nutrigrain in a pink bowl? *ahem* 

6. Reduce stigma Create a national conversation that normalises seeking assistance and recognises that food insecurity can affect anyone. 7. Treat food security as a national priority Recognise access to adequate food as a foundational social and economic issue that affects health, education, productivity and community wellbeing. 8. Make it as easy as possible for producers and manufacturers to supply surplus produce to charities for redistribution Introduce incentives that help farmers and manufacturers donate surplus produce and support food relief organisations to recover it. Australia has the resources, the knowledge and the capability to address hunger. What is needed now is collective determination. In a country as prosperous as ours, one in three households experiencing food insecurity should never be accepted as normal.

I worry about “reducing stigma” as I don’t always think it’s really about external stigma. Some comes from actually making the end-users feel safe to access the services on offer in their communities. I know people who have trauma from religion and would not have been able to sit through the – just cringe to me – prayer before they started distribution at the local joint Salvos/Adventist weekly food pantry. It’s about the lady asking you to repeat yourself with a “please” when if you ask (I thought nicely enough) if it was okay to take a particular item. It’s a very personal thing, and “normalising” something that really shouldn’t be an every day or week thing isn’t helpful in my eyes. This isn’t normal. Being told to be grateful for a bag of veges that you have to throw out half of yourself isn’t NORMAL.

A green plastic shopping basket filled with groceries viewed from above. In the front are a blue Oreos Original Cheese box, a white Bundaberg Lemon Lime & Bitters Soda can with lemon graphic, a small jar with blue lid, a yellow package, two Bundaberg Passionfruit six-packs with fruit graphics, a package of Montecatini Style Chorizo sausages, a red-capped jar, a package of Lebanese cucumbers, three loose red tomatoes on the vine, a bag of Gourmet Mix salad leaves with price tag showing $1.65, a bag of frozen chicken, and a Don small goods package. To the left of the basket are stacked grocery boxes including one labeled Im New Ginger Orange. Visible text includes Oreos, Original Cheese, Lift to Open, Bundaberg, Soda, Lemon Lime & Bitters, Passionfruit, Montecatini Style Chorizo, Lebanese Cucumbers, Gourmet Mix, and $1.65. The setting is a supermarket aisle with shelves of products in the background.
Discounted groceries from Woolies

Normal is having the cash to buy at your local supermarket or other market. It’s being able to shop the bargains of end of day specials rather than relying on the distribution of these to the poors a day or so later at the food pantry – if you get there early enough to get one of the 8 bags on offer as it was this Monday. 

I always say yes, there is a place for emergency food support – in disasters, if someone has to flee the family home, people are unwell. But this can be done through community care, or through the government, or, when people have enough to feed their own households having a little extra for Frank next door. it doesn’t take a network of purple and yellow trucks – people are still picking up food waste from local bakeries and supermarkets and taking it to share with those in need at the established food pantries regardless of how much they buy from Foodbank or Second Bite.

Less branding more community. 

Hey look at me being social – Lunch at Fatima’s Lebanese restaurant, Sydney

My social outing of the year that wasn’t family – and almost all of those were really a caring situation so I was “on” at all times. So it was nice to be able to head down to Sydney and catch up with Mel and Kristin in person for the first time since the Brisbane conference (yes, it really has been that long).

A spread of Middle Eastern appetisers including a plate of houmous sprinkled with paprika, a bowl of pitta bread, a plate of fried cauliflower with drizzle, and a plate of pickled turnips and cucumbers.

When I let Kristin know I was on the train down, she sussed out what I might like and we settled on Lebanese and Mel met me at the station and we toddled up to Fatima’s on Cleveland Street. Quiet little place with old decor and images of Lebanon past and not as far past.

A small plate of crispy, sesame-topped falafel balls resting on sliced raw onions.

I stared blankly at the menu, no idea what I wanted. The others sorted out the orders with the owner, who compromised and gave me one of each lamb and chicken skewers on plate because I really couldn’t decide.

A plate of Mediterranean food featuring grilled chicken and beef skewers, two falafel balls, tabbouleh, houmous with paprika, and pickled turnips.

I loved all the meat and the cauliflower and humus. The pickles were a great contrast, and the felafel crunchy outside and not dry on the inside. I really meant to get some baklava to take home with me, but perhaps another time.

A white plate piled with pieces of grilled, charred meat and a slice of onion.

We caught up about life and politics and plans for the future, short and long term. I don’t think I really have any yet, nor really know when I’ll be ready for more. My drafts want me to write more about food banks, and maybe I will this week. But we’ll see where my headspace is at. I haven’t quite got a current routine and keep laying catch up.

A woman with red hair and glasses holding a bottle of Diet Coke while wearing a shirt with a Hallowe’en print of pumpkins, ghosts, and cobwebs.

Treated myself to an overpriced Diet Coke for the trip home – much emptier train than the one down but the 10 carriage trains still confuse me with where I am in them. At least it doesn’t matter too much, I just need to not sit in the first couple of carriages in case it’s too long for the platform I do arrive home on.

A wooden bed with a white duvet featuring a green and gold leaf pattern, with a white pillow and a tissue box on the headboard.

How good are clean sheets tho?

A dollar per welfare recipient to charities? Happy Anti-Poverty Week!

“A $2 million dollar boost” to ceo-heavy vanity projects such as Ozharvest and Foodbank is more insult than cash splash from the government at the start of Antipoverty Week  for 2026. With people on welfare more than overrepresented in early death figures, and deaths of despair (addiction and mental health related deaths) happy snaps and breathy thank you from Big Names in Food Relief take over from the every day stories of people queuing up to hopefully get a free bag of veges that they hopefully don’t have to throw out too much of themselves.

"It’s the start of Anti-Poverty Week, and instead of ending government induced poverty the Minister for Social Services has announced meagre funding for emergency relief charities that amounts to less than $1 per welfare recipient, while people in this country are dying from poverty."

— 🐈‍⬛💜 phonakins 🍉🌲 (@phonakins.com) 2026-10-12T21:39:10.852Z

I mean I only had to throw out 2/5 apples in this weeks bag, and most of the grapes are fine. At least it’s not the crumpets I was relieved my partner declined because when i went to have one the morning I brought THOSE home they had those little spots of mold you cant see through the thick plastic.

rotting basil
This basil made me cry

Long life milk has just gone up to $1.80 a litre at my local, after hitting $1.50 this time last year. So have most canned goods, which are still waaaay cheaper at aldi, but you know it’s not the name brands as donated with much fan fare to the purple supermarket…

Shelves stocked with cartons of Australia’s Own skimmed and whole milk, with handwritten price signs reading $1.80 and a sign limiting purchases to two per week.

Anyway

Raise the rate, build and buy public housing, put a rent freeze in place and empower people to look after themselves and their communities.

Happy Anti-Poverty Week!

I have written a million things on the folly of foodbanks already Feel free to share and quote them

https://phonakins.com/2024/12/09/xmas-shutdown-much-needed-time-off-for-volunteers-but-heres-how-long-til-the-food-banks-reopen/

https://phonakins.com/2024/11/18/love-me-some-fake-mint-clice-bikkies-but-that-foodbank-offering-needs-some-actual-food/

https://phonakins.com/2024/11/29/food-banks-are-just-a-more-expensive-way-to-get-food-that-isnt-necessarily-suitable-to-to-poor-people-prove-me-wrong/

https://phonakins.com/2025/01/15/food-banks-are-broken-just-like-the-rest-of-system-they-are-in/

https://phonakins.com/2025/04/09/anzac-biscuits-cost-more-at-the-food-bank-than-aldi-thats-it-thats-the-title/

and the og
https://phonakins.com/2023/09/10/what-are-foodbank-prices-really-like/

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Squeaky Wheeling may get Results, but omg it’s Exhausting

I thought I’d hit a wall a week ago, but then I hit a bigger harder one. Because I only slowed down a little but kept going. Burnt myself on the coffee machine, walked of with part of an order, that sorta thing.

But mum got moved to the local private hospital on Monday afternoon. After my emails to the minister et al, after calling it what it was – discrimination – for her not taking her or others because they need hoisting. Not at the stage at going into whether this means all people who need the sort of care mum needs now would be rejected, but they appeased me. For now.

caramel tart with cream with a bit out of it

So we’re eating the yummy private hospital food and trying to stay sane, since there’s not really anything to DO there, but exist and be cared for. I’ve not yet asked if the fees still kick in after 35 days but we’ve got a word on a possible place local in “a couple of weeks” so hopefully we’re out by September 11 and don’t have to find out. They don’t cost nearly as much as the places on the northern beaches, but there’s still $550k deposits and ongoing fees for private beds here too.

The 35-Day Rule

Even though I spend an awful lot of time looking at health and welfare stuff, I have A LOT to learn about the stuff that affects older people (generally 65 years + in Australia) outside of my brief grasp of the Aged Pension and how it differs from DSP.

This week’s learnings were about the 35-day rule in NSW public hospitals for “Nursing Home Type Patients“. A “Nursing home type patient is when you’re finished needing the hospital treatment for whatever you came in with (and also anything else that came up along the way) and you’re basically just receiving the level of care a car home would give – this include regular medications if they don’t need adjusting, toileting and shower and other personal care support, and accommodation and meals. After 35 days at this level of care they can start charging “at a rate equivalent to 85% of the aged pension” for care and board.

If you get sick in that time (eg you have another stroke or you get a UTI or a hospital acquired infection) you can moved back to being a regular patient and not charged, but the clock doesn’t reset. Once you’re deemed back in maintenance mode they start charging again.

This is meant to encourage people to get their wiggle on in getting their Nan into an aged care placement. Which might be a nice idea to the bean counters, but families have very little influence on getting those placements once they paperwork is all done. Which are usually done within a month if there’s social work support to do so.

There are no aged care beds anywhere, so charging a daily fee isn’t going to get Grandma into care sooner, it’s just another stressor on the family regardless of whether they can “Afford” it or not. There’s no bed for fee paying residents or fully commonwealth supported ones. If anything this fee should be on the federal government if it’s to incentivise a placement.

After 35 in a hospital after you're deemed well enough for discharge but are stuck because you're waiting for an aged care placement NSW health starts billing you an amount equiv to 85% of the pension for board and care. It can be waived for hardship but yeah should be billed to the feds.

— 💜 phonakins 🍉🌲 (@phonakins.com) 2026-08-20T11:18:31.961Z

The 85% is of the single pension rate, which is going to be $1237.70 a fortnight from September 20, or $933 for a member of a couple. It can be waived for “financial stress” which would anyone relying on the pension for their income, and certainly screwing over the partner of the person stuck in hospital.

Social Security Payment Parameters 20 September 2026 indexation Rates Pension Rates Pension — Single — Resident Component (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Basic Rate $1,100.30 $1,135.40 $35.10 Pension Supplement $86.50 $88.20 $1.70 Energy Supplement $14.10 $14.10 - Typical Total Rate $1,200.90 $1,237.70 $36.80 Note: also applies to residents temporarily absent (weeks 1 to 6). Note: also includes illness separated, respite care or partner in gaol. Pension — Partnered (each) — Resident Component (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Basic Rate $829.40 $855.90 $26.50 Pension Supplement $65.20 $66.50 $1.30 Energy Supplement $10.60 $10.60 - Typical Total Rate $905.20 $933.00 $27.80 Note: also applies to residents temporarily absent (weeks 1 to 6).

The other indexation rates for September 20 are here.

With the scaremongering news that rents are looking to go up 30%, the $2 a week rent assistance increases are, as always, laughable. My rent will increase in December, waiting to see by how much. Last year it was $50/week with the signing of another 12 month lease.

Commonwealth Rent Assistance Commonwealth Rent Assistance — SSAct — Maximum rates Family situation (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Single $219.40 $223.80 $4.40 Single — Sharer $146.27 $149.20 $2.93 Partnered — Illness separated $219.40 $223.80 $4.40 Partnered — Temporarily separated $206.80 $211.00 $4.20 Couple $206.80 $211.00 $4.20 Commonwealth Rent Assistance — SSAct — Rent thresholds Family situation (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Single $154.80 $157.80 $3.00 Single — Sharer $154.80 $157.80 $3.00 Partnered — Illness separated $154.80 $157.80 $3.00 Partnered — Temporarily separated $154.80 $157.80 $3.00 Couple $250.80 $255.80 $5.00 Commonwealth Rent Assistance — SSAct — Rent ceilings Family situation (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Single $447.34 $456.20 $8.86 Single — Sharer $349.83 $356.74 $6.91 Partnered — Illness separated $447.34 $456.20 $8.86 Partnered — Temporarily separated $430.54 $439.14 $8.60 Couple $526.54 $537.14 $10.60

And with the increasing unemployment rate, more are waiting on their extra $8.10 a week and for it to have already disappeared into the nether. Jobseeker Payment Rates Note: some of the following rates may apply to Special Benefit recipients. JobSeeker Payment — Single — No dependent children Component (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Basic Rate $808.70 $824.90 $16.20 Energy Supplement $8.80 $8.80 - Typical Total Rate $817.50 $833.70 $16.20 JobSeeker Payment — Single — With dependent children Component (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Basic Rate $866.00 $883.30 $17.30 Energy Supplement $9.50 $9.50 - Typical Total Rate $875.50 $892.80 $17.30 JobSeeker Payment — Single — Principal carer of a dependent child Component (per fortnight) Previous Amount 20 Sep 2026 Increase Basic Rate $866.00 $883.30 $17.30 Energy Supplement $9.50 $9.50 - Pharmaceutical Allowance $7.00 $7.00 - Typical Total Rate $882.50 $899.80 $17.30

So, mum’s in purgatory, but a slightly quieter one after moving to a smaller hospital, but not the private one that rejected other the day they said she was moving and was packed up and transport on the way, the one that at least two staff at the current hospital have said she should go to and a couple more expressed surprise at the rejection.

A lime green paper coffee cup with a black lid and sleeve sits on a dark wooden picnic table. The cup sleeve features black text and graphics including Central Catering, Go Market, and a small illustration of a building on a hill. To the right of the cup is a clear rectangular plastic container with a blue latch holding two rectangular slices of frosted pink cake. A metal fork rests inside the container on top of the cake. In the blurred background other drink cups are partially visible including one with a yellow logo. Bright sunlight creates a strong glare from the upper left.

So we wait, drink lots of coffee, keep calling the same places just to see and I unfortunately am getting a new area of welfare and health to specialise in complaining about.

It’s August apparently.

If you like this post, have learned something from this or my blaterings on the socials, or just want to help me pay for coffee and petrol (the new hospital is just as far a drive but parking is less crap), my wishlists an paylinks are here.