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1. Introduction
There remains a paucity of literature on food banking in Australia, and much of it is dated (Boekenstein, 2014; Horton, 2004; O’Hearn, 2004). In the last 20 years, the food banking system has expanded and become more corporatized. In order to place the evolution of food banks in context, we first outline the nature of emergency relief. The provision of emergency relief in Australia has had a long tradition in social welfare history and can be traced back to colonial times. In the nineteenth century, charity was the main institutional assistance protecting poor people from starvation and homelessness. The Benevolent Society of New South Wales was founded in 1813 to provide “outdoor relief” or rations, and remained the dominant charity throughout the nineteenth century (Dickey, 1980).
Emergency relief assistance can be defined as the “provision of financial […] [and material] assistance to those persons who find themselves in financial crisis” (ACOSS, 2011). The Commonwealth contributes to the funding of emergency relief and has done so since the late 1970s due to concerns about high levels of funding variability among States and Territories and the potential for serious inequalities. During its term of office; 1983-1991, the Labour government tried unsuccessfully to hand back the responsibility for funding emergency relief to the States. Hence, the Commonwealth remains a key source of funding (Engels, 2006). States may provide some funding, but it is variable, as shown in Table I. For example Food bank WA receives funding from State Departments of Education, Health and Regional Development to support remote communities; particularly schools, whereas Tasmania and Northern Territory received no funding. Delivery of emergency relief (including food relief) occurs at State and Territory level by agencies on the ground.
The nature of the Commonwealth emergency relief funding formula is highly problematic. For example, contracted emergency relief organisations are required to apply for funding each year; and funding allocations for each State are based on the number of recipients of specific Government benefits. However, the amount of emergency relief funding does not reflect the true level of community need as it does not include others who seek emergency food relief and are not on benefits, for example the working poor, students, carers and newly arrived migrants (Engels, 2006).
The...