Peak Oil, Petrol Prices and Climate Change Conference. Health and community sector A view from St Vincent de Paul Gavin Dufty manager policy and research

Peak oil, climate change and impact on the health and community sector

 Additional cost of transport faced by those in the rural areas of the state. Who on average pay an additional $12 per week, or $624 per annum over those in the urban areas.  This cost differential is even greater when comparing the impact for the national perspective. With those in the rural areas paying on average an additional $1500 per annum in transport costs.

Peak oil, climate change and impact on the health and community sector

 As these household cost structures are based on ABS numbers as the cost of petrol has increased by approximately 30cents per liter this would result in the estimates of the cost pressures of transport on households rising as much as 30% on the estimates.  Adding an additional $200 to $500 per annum.

Peak oil, climate change and impact on the health and community sector  Demand for emergency transport relief across Victoria – impact on the most vulnerable.  Particularly high costs in non metro  For those we assist on 33 local regions we have the top 7 transport assistance are  South Gippsland over 30k  Goulburn valley over 21K  Wangarratta over 17K  Latrobe valley over 15k  Bendigo over 9K  Glenelg over 7K  Wimmera over 7K

Peak oil, climate change and impact on the health and community sector  Impacts on volunteers - about 4,000 delivering emergency assistance  The cost of transport has had an impact on our volunteers as travel longer distances more cost initially to volunteer and impacts on those they assist as they can provide less support.  Volunteer retention – because of the additional costs volunteers can not afford to deliver support so leave.  Limits frequency of assistance to households.  Puts financial pressure on Volunteers at risk of becoming clients (cash flow issues if claim from us but often they don’t)  And huge cost if claimed back to the society (and not all do claim back) and reduces funds available for assistance.

Peak oil, climate change and impact on the health and community sector  Impact on the organization - a case study  we have 95 Op shops across Victoria majority volunteer managed (55) this brings an additional 4000 volunteers to assist these operations.  Required to provide 5 day Occ health and safety training delivered in Melbourne (sector specific so cant do locally) cost to get to training (transport alone) 70 cents a Kilometer  Mildura $3000  Horsham $2000  Lakes Entrance $2000  Colac $600 so on !!  Do this minimum bi annually (a Volunteer mangers only have 2 year terms) or as managers change