CRANBOURNE
cranbournenews.starcommunity.com.au
Thursday, 16 May, 2024
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Community rallies for family
Amazing aurora
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SPORT
A helping hand done differently By Violet Li Cranbourne Rotary’s long-prepared Helping Hands Program saw 27 mechanical hands assembled for amputee landmine victims throughout developing countries on 11 May at Balla Balla Community Centre in Clyde North. It had not been an easy journey to hold a big-scale charity event like this, and they were very grateful everything went so well, Cranbourne Rotary president Gerard Sadler shared with the paper. Story page 29
Facilitator Andrew Melas from Helping Hands Victorian branch at the day to help. 402236 Picture: ROB CAREW
More support bid By Violet Li As the 2024 Federal Budget prioritises measures to ease cost-of-living, Casey communities say they are insufficient and more targeted reliefs could be delivered to low-income households. The budget includes a one-off $300 energy rebate for all households, $1.9 billion to increase the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 per cent, and the revised stage-three tax cuts announced earlier this year. The housing relief introduces an additional
$1.9 billion in loans to help build 40,000 social and affordable homes, and an extra $423m funding over five years to help develop social housing and improve homelessness services with the state governments. Holt MP Cassandra Fernando said the main priorities of the budget were helping with the cost of living, building more homes for Australians, investing in a Future Made in Australia, and strengthening Medicare and the care economy. “I know families in Holt are doing it tough and that is why we have been working hard to support them,” she said.
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“The tax cuts will save the average taxpayer in Holt $1321 dollars.” Shari McPhail, general manager at South East homelessness service Wayss said the Federal Budget was not going to relieve entrenched poverty in the region. “Everyone getting power-bill relief is not targeted enough. There has been no rise in JobSeeker,” she said. “This does nothing to impact on long-term poverty or to help people who we see at our services.” Community Information and Support Cranbourne (CISC) executive director Leanne
Petrides noted most of the people who came to CISC for assistance cited cost of living pressures from rent or mortgage payments, cost of petrol, food, and energy bills as their primary reasons for not being able to make ends meet. “The $300 energy rebate will barely be noticed by middle- and higher-income households. However, every dollar saved in a lowincome household is precious. This rebate could have been improved by targeting it to low-income households only and increasing it,” she said. Continued page 8
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