Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Weekly Payments) Bill 2010. The background to this is the government’s strong commitment to reducing homelessness. Homelessness is a curse in our society. It is not a choice as the opposition leader infamously said recently; it is often the result of violence in the home, sexual abuse, alcohol and gambling addiction, personal circumstances, familial circumstances and employment circumstances. Young people who grow up in homes where they are afflicted by these problems are more likely to repeat the cycle of homelessness and trouble. That results in criminal activity and on many occasions it results in low educational attainment and achievement, lack of employment skills, lack of productivity in the workplace and a more harsh, brutal and unfair society.

One wonders what the Howard coalition government thought about homelessness in their nearly 12 years on the treasury bench. Perhaps they were going to address the issue in their 13th, 14th or 15th year of office. Certainly, when I listened to the member for Paterson, I heard nothing about the achievements of the Howard government and heard nothing about what a coalition government under the current Leader of the Opposition would do in relation to homelessness. There was much complaint, much whingeing, much carping and much aggravation but no solutions to the problems and little bipartisanship. It really is quite sad that recently in the Sydney Morning Herald the opposition leader, dealing with this issue of homelessness—and that is what this legislation before the House is about—had this to say in relation to the issue of homelessness:

But we just can’t stop people from being homeless if that’s their choice or if their situation is such that it is just impossible to look after them under certain circumstances so I would rephrase a commitment like that.

It is typical of those opposite, who think homelessness is a matter of choice. For them it is all a matter of choice. Sadly, homelessness is not the fault of so many people. Women and children find themselves in terrible situations. On any given night in this country there are about 105,000 people who are homeless—about 19 per cent in crisis accommodation, about 20 per cent in insecure accommodation, boarding houses and the like, about 45 per cent will be staying temporarily with friends or relatives, and about 16 per cent will be sleeping rough on the street.

Tragically, about 17 per cent of those people are Indigenous. Homelessness is worse amongst our Indigenous brothers and sisters. This is what the census says. This is what the facts say. And it did not all happen on 24 November 2007. It happened, so much, on the watch of the previous government. In fact, St Vincent de Paul stated in its report, Don’t dream: it’s over, that the number of families with children which were seeking assistance from homelessness services had increased by 30 per cent over the past five years. So let’s not kid ourselves by coming into this place and claiming that it is all the fault of the Rudd Labor government.

The background to this is that we made an election commitment to do something about homelessness. In January 2008 the Prime Minister and the Minister for Housing, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, announced the development of a comprehensive long-term plan to tackle homelessness. A steering committee was appointed and in May 2008 a green paper on homelessness was released entitled Which way home? A new approach to homelessness. There was much public discussion, which was sought across all states during May and June 2008. More than 1,200 people attended 13 consultations and almost 600 written submissions were received. More than 300 people who were homeless expressed their views. As a result of that, further developments took place and the government announced a white paper called The road home: a national approach to reducing homelessness. That was released in December 2008.

Part of our strategy to address the issue of homelessness is to bring forward legislation like this. I will address some of the other issues about what the government is doing. I did not intend to make a very partisan speech, but the previous speaker has goaded and prodded me into doing so. The legislation that is before the House introduces weekly payments of social security periodic payments, family tax benefit and baby bonus for a certain class of persons. People have the option, having been identified by Centrelink as potentially vulnerable people, to receive their payments in a way which will help them manage their bills better. Sadly, some people who are homeless are not well educated, do not have the skills and capacity to manage their money as they ought and need help. That is what Centrelink is there to do: give them assistance to meet their needs in terms of food, rent and essential services.

Paying the money weekly is more likely to assist people than paying money on a fortnightly, monthly or three-monthly basis. The legislation before us assists those people who lack capacity and gives them the certainty of knowing that they will have money on a weekly basis. For many of these people it is the necessities of life that they need; they have little access to money for recreation or pleasure. They just need a helping hand to get through and extract themselves from their positions of vulnerability and distress. The total amount paid to social security and family assistance customers will be the same. It is about the delivery of assistance. So the legislation is a fair piece of legislation; it gives a helping hand to those in distress.

We believe we need to help not just those who are homeless but those who are vulnerable in our society or at risk of being vulnerable. Tragically, according to the figures, more than 12,000 children last night were homeless or at risk. We cannot allow this to happen. It is a national tragedy in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Tragically, the coalition did little to address the issue during its tenure as government. As a result of the white paper the Australian government, in partnership with the states and territories, has committed $1.2 billion to address homelessness over the next four years. This is a 55 per cent increase in funding—real money on the table. It is a demonstration of the commitment of the Rudd Labor government to helping those in distress, in disadvantage and in difficulty. It will enable new support services to be created for people who are homeless and it is about creating new houses as well.

When it comes to social housing—which is so critical and which the previous government had an appalling record on—money is being poured into my electorate, the federal electorate of Blair. I have had many discussions over the years with housing authorities in Queensland and you only have to hear the words of the Hon. Robert Schwarten, who was a long-term minister for housing in Queensland, to realise that the previous government, the Howard government, did little in the area of public housing. In fact, it was quite amenable to ripping the heart out of public housing in this country.

In my electorate alone, under the Social Housing Initiative, we are seeing close to $32 million put into the creation of new dwellings, and about $1.2 million put into repairs to and maintenance of existing dwellings. We have also seen—to assist our defence personnel—another 111 houses being built in the Ipswich area. This is real money. Allied with our initiative to address homelessness, on 3 February 2009 we released our Nation Building and Jobs Plan—and the above is the evidence in my electorate of the money we are putting into addressing homelessness. We are putting in $6.4 billion to build 20,000 new public and community housing dwellings across the country.

There are many great communitarians in my electorate who are at the coalface of dealing with people who are vulnerable, and I want to pay tribute to them. They will be dealing with the people who will be able to avail themselves of the benefits of weekly payments. I want to pay tribute to Pastor Fred Muys from the Rivers of Life Christian Church for his ministry through Harvest Rain Christian Care. That particular church is a small church with a shopfront in Brisbane Street in Ipswich. They deliver hundreds of food parcels every week. They run literacy classes to help people from non-English-speaking backgrounds to gain literacy and greater employment skills. They have created a great enterprise there on the grounds of the old Tivoli drive-in, and created many opportunities and training facilities for our young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Pastor Fred Muys and his great team of workers are to be commended. They will see the benefits in the lives of people who will be the recipients of weekly payments.

I want to pay tribute to my own church, Ipswich Baptist Church, for its 241 Ministries, located right across from the church’s old site. For a long time, that church ran community kitchens and also provided food parcels, and continues to do so. It gives counselling to people in central Ipswich who are suffering from homelessness, addiction and from other problems, of domestic and family violence. I want to pay tribute also to Ipswich Region Community Church, under the leadership of Pastor Mark Edwards, for that church’s assistance to and the partnership it has with Ipswich Baptist Church—putting on a psychologist to give psychological services and counselling to those people who attend at the 241 Ministries in Brisbane Street, Ipswich.

I want to thank Bianca Law from the Booval Community Service for the great work she does, in particular, and the community service for the great work they do, for those families in distress. I have been round with Bianca to visit families in Ipswich who have lost jobs and, as a result, are facing hardship. I have seen the despair, humiliation and not just the anger but the sadness in the eyes of men and women who have fallen into circumstances where they never thought they would go. Bianca and her team at Booval Community Service have done great work there.

I want to thank also David Martin, who has chaired for a long time ICYS, which is a youth community service in Ipswich that has been around almost forever. The service has done great work in dealing with people who have suffered from disadvantage, particularly young families. Hannah’s House, run by the Pentecostal churches in Ipswich, particularly the Assemblies of God, deals with young women who have been forced out of their homes as a result of violence, drunkenness or other parental misbehaviour. They are all suffering challenge also. All of these great services have done great work.

They will see the benefit of this legislation. I want to pay tribute to all these local people but also thank them for what they are doing. They work closely with Centrelink, with the 90 Centrelink community engagement officers that the Rudd government employed to deal with the issues of homelessness and the risk of homelessness. Those 90 Centrelink community engagement officers help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, particularly by connecting them with mental health services, hostels, boarding houses, drug and alcohol rehabilitation services and emergency accommodation. We are committed to improving the delivery services for all Australians and to making sure that the reform in this legislation will target vulnerable Australians who find it difficult to budget.

Having no money in your wallet, in your household, in your coffers at the end of a fortnight is extraordinarily difficult. Thousands and thousands of Australians find themselves in that situation every night, every week and every fortnight. I support this legislation because it will help struggling families—women in particular, children in particular—to put a roof over their heads, to put food in their bellies and to put clothes on their backs. This is good legislation. It is part of the matrix and the fabric of what the Rudd government is doing to assist the vulnerable in our community. It is a good initiative, it is a Labor initiative and I commend the legislation to the House.

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