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