Lifeline has offered a solemn reality check. Money worries are high – so what will the government do?

‘There are bricks-and-mortar factors affecting both inflation and growth – keeping one up and the other down. And then there are our emotional responses, the animal spirits that can also have a real effect.’ Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

At a fundraising event for Lifeline Canberra on Monday night, general manager Adam Miller opened with a brief and distressing reality check on the telephone counselling service’s work across the country.

“Out of the 10 busiest days in Lifeline’s history,” Miller told the audience, “five have been in the last six months.”