Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Macnamara on this very important motion. This is an area of public policy that is, indeed, complex. And that complexity and that urgency, because of the types of people that are being affected by increasing rates of homelessness—as identified by the members for Macnamara and Werriwa—means that we need a plan. As the member for Macnamara indicated, there is some action being undertaken at the moment but it is too ad hoc and it is too piecemeal given the nature of the problem that our country faces.

I want to indicate some statistics in relation to my electorate that indicate what is going on in my community but also that reflect what is going on across the country. Homelessness in the local government area of Brimbank, which is an area that closely aligns with the federal electorate that I represent, increased by 40 per cent by 2011 and 2016, and that is a shameful statistic in a country as wealthy as ours. The rate of homelessness in St Albans nearly doubled between 2011 and 2016. There were 420 people homeless in St Albans on census night in 2016. That's one suburb in my electorate and that is a number that is shameful and far too high. There were 1,400 homeless in Brimbank in 2016. One-third of those experiencing homelessness in Fraser were aged between 12 and 24. As I said, that supports the arguments that were raised by the members for Macnamara and Werriwa that this is a problem that afflicts those who are most vulnerable in our community. This problem reflects long-term trends, systemic trends, that government needs to address with a large, well-funded, overarching plan, and that is not what is happening at the moment.

Across our country in 2017-18 over 800,000 Australians were in social housing, living in over 400,000 dwellings across the country. Most were in public housing with increasing numbers in community housing. What is most striking about that stock of housing is that the stock of social housing has barely grown in the last 20 years, whereas our overall population has increased by 33 per cent. That reflects the imbalance at the moment between those who are seeking short-term, affordable housing and the stock that is available. That's why waiting lists are growing across our country.

The construction of new public housing dwellings is currently at its lowest rate for 40 years and existing public housing stock is severely underfunded. In 1974-75 the Commonwealth invested 0.55 per cent of GDP in public housing. Today, it's under 0.1 per cent. As I said, it is shameful, given what a wealthy country we are, that we are underfunding such a critical part of our social safety net. The trend is down. We must reverse that trend. That is something that this government is not paying attention to. There remain 200,000 people on social housing waiting lists across the country.

We can look at some of our comparator countries to see how we fare. In Australia, we have a public housing sector that is 4.4 per cent of the total stock. Look at Ireland at 10 per cent, France at 17 per cent and the UK at 18 per cent. They are orders of magnitude higher, providing housing stock that is affordable and secure for the most vulnerable in society. In our country, not only is the stock low but the trend in investment is paltry and falling. This is an environment, as the member for Macnamara pointed out, where we need a plan, not piecemeal activities and not initiatives here and there. We need an overarching plan. The government's lack of action in this area is so reflective of its lack of planning across its economic policy and social policy more generally.

Well, what do we need? We need a massive increase in investment. Look at what this party took to the last election. We had a bold plan that included 250,000 new, affordable rental homes at 20 per cent below market rent over 10 years, 20,000 of which would have been in the first term. That is the scale of activity that our community needs. Not only do we need an increase in stock and an increase in investment in the refurbishment of existing stock; we need wraparound services to reflect the complex needs of those who are seeking these housing services. I commend this motion to the House and I call on the government to undertake a much bolder and more coordinated plan of activity in order to assist those vulnerable people in our community inflicted by this scourge. (Time expired)

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