Who would have thought that this kind of thing would be seen in the UK.
the article below was written in December last year - CPGBML - it's relevant to Australia because the UK Government has already done what the Government here are planning in the upcoming budget (and before). People can't just turn up at these food banks, it's very tightly controlled. According to reports a large percentage of families forced to turn to the food banks have members working but wages are so low that families just can't get by.
Four years ago, food banks were almost unheard of in Britain. This year, however, the Trussell Trust – Britain’s largest and only food poverty network – estimated that its food banks had assisted more than 150,000 people – 200 percent up on the year before – between the months of April and June, when benefit changes came into effect.
The trust also added that the problem has become so severe that some people using their services have handed items back, unable to afford the gas and electricity needed to cook them. Growing numbers of working people are now becoming accustomed to lives of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.
As of August, new figures from the Citizens Advice Bureau show a 78 percent rise in enquiries about food banks in the past six months. According to a YouGov survey released in early November, 25 percent of British people are eating less meat this year than in 2012.
Further insight into the rise of food banks came in the form of a large wave of undeniable reality when in October the Red Cross initiated its first emergency food aid collections in Britain since WWII. The UK poverty director for Oxfam, Chris Johnes, emphasised the seriousness of the matter when he said “[the Red Cross] don’t do things for reasons of grandstanding at all. The fact they are doing this ... is a very clear signal of how serious things have become.”
The Red Cross concluded that austerity measures have compounded the ever-increasing problems of poverty and unemployment for large sections of working people across Europe. Statistics also indicate that more people are turning to theft to feed themselves, with retail crime losses in 2012-13 some 6.8 percent higher than in 2011-12.
Working people classified as being in ‘food poverty’ have, as a result of this dire situation, become increasingly reliant on charitable organisations to put food on the table. Rising food prices and utility bills leave many working people with little extra money once they’ve covered their essential living expenses.
Despite all this glaring evidence, the government persists in its denials and attacks against the working people – and continues to blame the poor for their poverty.
@crikey*mate wrote:a downside of a capitalist society and a meritocratic system.
crikey, I had to google "meritocratic" 
, but no, not at all - just bad management of the economy. Even the IMF have warned the UK government on their austerity measures - pretty worrying when they are usually the mob telling Governments to slash and burn.
below from IA april 2013
Between 2004 to 2007 the Howard Government saw $334 billion of upward revisions yet still under invested in crucial sectors and sold off public assets.
Every developed nation entered recession ... expect for Australia that is.
Australia took decisive action to stem the impacts of the GFC on jobs and economic growth. The economy is now at trend growth and 926,000 jobs have been created since the GFC. An outstanding result no matter how you slice it.
This meant stimulating the economy with a significant stimulus package of around $52 billion (3% of GDP in today's terms). A response that was heralded as a model targeted and effective response by the IMF, OECD and World Bank. The OECD praised the package stating it would save 200,000 jobs.
World experts such as Nobel Prize laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz also said the stimulus "served Australia well".
