Last week, I met with CORE Community Services staff to discuss the work they do in south-west Sydney and their participation in the new Community Partnership Pilot program with Services Australia. The pilot program is designed to connect people with government services and payments they otherwise would have difficulty accessing.

CORE has been operating in south-west Sydney for almost 40 years and provides food relief, multilingual outreach programs and youth programs among its services. CORE have centres in hubs throughout south-west Sydney.

During the meeting, we discussed the impact the pilot program has had on the two community partnership specialist officers, Sothy and Phonethip, and especially those with non-English-speaking backgrounds. They do an amazing job and are over the moon that they can make a difference, particularly for women who are escaping domestic violence. I thank them for all that they are doing in our community. I look forward to this program expanding further throughout Australia. I'd like to thank the CEO of CORE and the strategy and performance manager for taking the time to meet with me. It was absolutely wonderful to meet everyone on that day.