Funding for financially vulnerable

I am calling on local community organisations to apply for funding to support financially vulnerable Australians access critical services in the Parkes electorate.

The Federal Government is providing $328 million in grant funding for community organisations to administer financial crisis assistance and education programs, through the Financial Wellbeing and Capability Activity open grants round. Applications are open now, and will close on 22 August 2018.

Programs funded through this grant round will help people in the Parkes electorate to navigate financial crises and build financial wellbeing and resilience.

The Coalition Government’s investment in these grants acknowledges just how important it is to help financially vulnerable Australians strive for a better life.

Under the Financial Wellbeing and Capability grant round:

• up to $200 million will be provided to Emergency Relief;
• $80 million will be for Food Relief, Commonwealth Financial Counselling and Financial Capability and the Financial Counselling Helpline services; and
• $48 million in funding will be available for further services such as Financial Counselling for Problem Gambling, Money Support Hubs and Financial Resilience.

New grant agreements will be in place from 1 January 2019. For more information or to apply for a grant, you can visit GrantConnect – grants.gov.au.

Support for cancer patients

$50 million will be committed by the Federal Government to support some of Australia’s sickest patients, providing access to potentially life-saving medical treatment. This is good news for those battling different types of cancer including ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, renal cell cancer and sarcomas.

The new national program – The Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Program – will treat more than 5000 patients nationally, from every State and Territory.

The program will be open for patients with rare cancers and advanced stage cancers, who have little or no treatment options left. Each patient will have their cancer individually tested through what is known as genomic sequencing.

This new type of medical treatment works by looking deep into each patient’s cancerous cells, analysing their DNA to work out how to target and destroy the cancer. The result is tailored treatment. This means we can find out what medicine might work for a particular cancer and then get it to the patient.

The Coalition Government’s $50 million contribution to the program brings the total commitment to $160 million over five years.

The first clinical trials are expected to be held early next year. This is world-leading treatment and I look forward to following the progress of this program.

Protect yourself from NBN scams

NBN Co is alerting the community to be aware of scammers asking for personal information and financial details.

Scammers are increasingly taking the opportunity to impersonate NBN Co and take advantage of consumers, including those living in retirement villages.

You can protect your personal information by being on guard, verify who are you are talking to and not giving your personal details or bank account details to an unsolicited caller.

NBN Co is the company building and operating Australia’s wholesale broadband network, and as a wholesale-only company does not sell broadband packages directly to consumers. There are times when NBN Co may make direct contact as part of the network rollout, but never to request payment for services over the nbn™ network.

NBN Co will never make unsolicited calls or door knock to sell broadband services, and will never request payment or bank account details. NBN Co also does not request payment in relation to medical alarms.

If you think you have been a victim, immediately report the scam to your bank or financial institution as well as the police. If you have any questions about these scams or would like further assistance, please contact IDCARE on 1300 432 273. You can report scams to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) via the SCAMwatch report scam page (www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam) or by calling 1300 795 995.