Scott Morrison unwinds decision to cut Foodbank funding after backlash

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has back-flipped on a decision to cut funding from Foodbank, a major hunger-relief organisation in Australia.

The Government announced a plan to cut Foodbankā€™s federal funding and instead have the money split between SecondBite and OzHarvest. This would mean the funding would be split across three organisations rather than two.

The Labor party and the National Farmersā€™ Federation as well as several parts of the charity sector criticised the Governmentā€™s plan. This backlash prompted Scott Morrison to issue a response on Twitter saying that the decision has been reversed and that the budget for food relief would be raised ā€œby 1.5 million over the next 4.5 yearsā€ as well as asking for more focus to be placed on areas affected by drought.

Brianna Casey, the chief executive of Foodbank was pleased with the Governmentā€™s reversal of the funding cut decision and said it was a ā€œmassive reliefā€.

Foodbank is the largest hunger-relief organisation in Australia and provides around 67 million meals every year.

Ms Casey said that the Governmentā€™s plan to redistribute funding was ā€œnot the right sort of responseā€ and that a competitive tender process wasnā€™t appropriate for matters that needed to ensure hungry people were fed.

In a second tweet, Mr Morrison said the reversal of the decision was going to maintain Foodbankā€™s funding at $750,000 per year.

In his own tweet, Labor leader Bill Shorten said that the reversal was a good result ā€œfor people power and common senseā€.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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