Confronting hunger in the UK and Australia

Picture at left from here.

 Australians have heard the 2014 Budget presented by the conservative Abbott Government.  It has not been well received and may have been influential in bringing about a change of government in Victoria and a Liberal loss at a by-election in South Australia.  Controversial elements of the budget have not been passed and the Federal Parliament has risen for the Christmas/New Year holiday period without any forseeable resolution.

After reading this article, one has to consider whether the sort of austerity prescribed by the budget of the Abbott Government is part of a world-wide ideology of conservative parties of the same ilk.

ACOSS has to-day released a report which reveals that  80% of front-line agencies in Australia are unable to meet current levels of demand with the resources they have. The biggest gaps in meeting demand are in the areas of greatest community need.  

Two different countries; two austerity budgets; two protests.

The Conservative party is seeking to avert one of its biggest rifts with the Church of England for decades as an all-party report on food banks warns that Britain is stalked by hunger caused by low pay, growing inequality, a harsh benefits sanctions regime and social breakdown.

The church-funded report says voluntary groups have been courageously fighting “a social Dunkirk” without the assistance of the government, and calls for urgent action to ensure ministers do more to combat hunger, including joining a new coordinating body and asking supermarkets to do more with surplus unsold products.

The furore reaches to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Welby played a central role in the six-month study, funded by his Archbishop of Canterbury’s Charitable Trust, which describes food banks as “the new shock absorbers of society”.

"Hunger stalks large parts of our country", says the Archbishop.  This may or may not be the case in Australia at the time of writing.  However, it is clear from the ACOSS report that should the Australian Government proceed with its austerity budget, hunger will stalk this country too. 

‘Confront simple fact hunger stalks Britain’urges church-funded report

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has persistently denied link between welfare policy and financial hardship

More on the Food Banks and hunger situation in the UK