Baptist Care Australia's 2022-23 Pre-Budget Submission

Offering our input into the Federal Budget decision-making cycle, Baptist Care Australia has submitted our 2022-23 Pre-Budget Submission. As the national representative body for Baptist community service organisations and their clients, we represent a membership that employs more than 11,500 staff, works with 3,000 volunteers and has an annual turnover of over $1 billion.

In this submission, we identify a number of ways the Government could improve the lives and wellbeing of for those people in Australia who have been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the final Budget of this Parliament, the current Government has one last opportunity to create a lasting legacy and tackle some of Australia's most serious challenges.

We have now reached two years since the first case of COVID was detected in the country, and the compounding impact of the instability and trauma of those years is taking a terrible toll on many people.Australia's basic social and financial systems are faltering under the strains of such pressures.

This Budget is an opportunity for the Government to demonstrate its solidarity with those people who need support the most.

Baptist Care Australia looks forward to working with the Government to create a nation where all people can equitably participate in the community, live in a country which is free of poverty, and where people have good reasons to be filled with hope.