Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand

GSANZ welcomes the opportunity to submit to the Discussion Paper: Financial wellbeing and capability activity (‘Discussion Paper’).

GSANZ has been delivering financial wellbeing programs for over 30 years. We operate financial literacy, capability building and microfinance programs including No Interest Loans (NILS) and matched savings scheme (AddsUP) in Victoria and NSW, in partnership with Good Shepherd Microfinance (GSM). GSANZ has also delivered financial counselling for over fifteen years. For the past three years GSANZ has been the lead agency in Consumer Affairs Victoria funded financial counselling programs in Brimbank-Melton and Bayside Peninsula catchments in Victoria, working with three service delivery partners. GSANZ also works as a partner organisation through state funded service delivery in Marrickville, NSW.

As well as significant practice experience, GSANZ has extensive research and policy expertise. GSANZ’s Women’s Research Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre supports our service delivery and strives to influence the policy environment by undertaking and collating relevant research, policy analysis, advocacy and outcomes measurement.
It is from both a practice and research perspective that we provide our feedback to the Discussion Paper.

Please find attached our fulsome response to the Discussion Paper Questions.