Aussies reeling from last budget: Vinnies

Ordinary Australians are still reeling from last year's federal budget, one of the nation's leading voices for equality says.

St Vincent De Paul National Council of Victoria chief executive officer John Falzon has blasted a budget that "ripped the guts out of what remains of a fair and egalitarian Australia".

Mr Falzon, who was speaking at the three-day Progress 2015 conference at Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday, has joined a host of "campaigners and changemakers" for the forum, including barrister Julian Burnside, Australian of the Year Rosie Batty and whistleblower Edward Snowden, who will appear via video link to speak on Australian metadata laws on Friday.

Mr Falzon says the nation is not in the throes of a financial crisis, but will face a social one if the government chooses a path of austerity.

"We will be staring down the barrel of a social crisis because of the small minority hell-bent on humiliating ordinary people," he said.

Mr Falzon accused the government of walking away from its responsibilities to Australians.

"It has shied away from the challenge to build a broader and more sustainable revenue base," he said.

"So that no one misses out on the essentials of life.

"You don't create a strong country on the backs of the already poor."

He described last year's budget as "an absolute masterpiece of inequality" and also called on people to fight for the environment.

"It is intergenerational theft if we pretend that climate change is not real," he said.

He believed the government, still "reeling from the backlash of ordinary people", continued to steal from the poor.

"This is what it means to rip $1 billion out of social services," he said.

Mr Falzon said there were more than 800,000 experiencing homelessness, more than 200,000 on the waiting list for social housing, and nearly 800,000 unemployed.