NOVEMBER 14, 2018 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
Artist aid for bush critters
(Damjan Janevski)
Altona’s Peter Forward is using his art to raise awareness of Australian bush creatures at risk of extinction and the threats to their habitats. Using cardboard thrown out by shops, glue and an angle grinder, he sculpts works based on the threatened Australian species. Among the animals he has created are the burrowing bettong, leadbeater’s possum, brush-tailed phascogale, spot-tailed quoll, numbat, bilby, potoroo, squirrel glider and yellow-footed rock-wallaby. One of his sculptures is of Australia’s most endangered marsupial – Gilbert’s potoroo. “I wanted to emphasise this one because there’s maybe a dozen left – and then they’re gone, gone forever,” Forward said. The recycled cardboard, a product basically made of wood chips, sends a message of its own. “We cut down our forests, which is the homes of these guys,” Forward said. Forward is seeking spaces to exhibit his art to educate people about native animals and the threats they face. To follow his work, visit Peter Forward’s Artist Diary on Facebook. Goya Dmytryshchak
Foodbank back down By Benjamin Millar A public backlash has forced the federal government to reverse its decision to strip funding from a Yarraville-based charity, a cut that jeopardised more than $8 million of food relief. Foodbank, a charity that helps feed 710,000 hungry Australians a month, slammed the government on Monday over a surprise decision to slash $323,000 a year from its funding. More than 30,000 people signed online petitions demanding the cuts be reversed. Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended
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I have listened and decided to increase the food - Scott Morrison relief budget
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the cuts on Monday, yet on Tuesday said funding would be restored for at least four more years. “I have listened and decided to increase the food relief budget by $1.5 million over the next 4.5 years and have asked the minister to place more focus on relief in drought-affected areas,” he stated via social media.
“This maintains Foodbank’s funding at $750,000 per year.” Foodbank chief executive Brianna Casey said the decision to reduce annual funding from $750,000 to $427,000, announced six weeks from Christmas, had shocked the organisation. But on Tuesday, Ms Casey welcomed the backdown, labelling the reversal a “massive relief ”. “As a sector, we are trying to feed more than four million Australians, who at some point are struggling with food insecurity,” she told ABC. The proposed cut would have been the
third since 2014 and threatened to end the charity’s Key Staples Program, which ensures essential supplies such as rice, bread and vegetables get to people going hungry. The cut decision was criticised by the federal opposition, the National Farmers Federation and even from within the government’s own ranks. Visiting Foodbank on Monday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called the funding cut “foolish” and “a disaster”. “When you can find $444 million for a Great Barrier Reef Foundation that didn’t even ask for the money … why not give $323,000 to the Foodbank?,” he asked.