Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macnamara for bringing this private members bill to the chamber. It's an important issue, and one close to my heart given my new position as Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services. After the recent election, Prime Minister Morrison appointed me to this position, as the first assistant minister with community housing and homelessness in their title, to work under cabinet minister Senator Anne Ruston, the social services minister. He also created a separate housing ministry under Minister Sukkar. I think that shows that the government is taking this issue very seriously. I asked the Prime Minister, 'What do we want to get done here?' He has a very caring nature, and he really wants to make a difference in helping people who are homeless and helping people who are on low incomes and finding it difficult to find sustainable long-term housing. Constitutionally, this space has traditionally been an area that state governments have been responsible for, and that continues to remain the case, but the federal government can help—and we are helping already, with more than $6 billion invested through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, through Commonwealth rent assistance.

The member for Stirling spoke about the safe places package, which is currently open, and I'd encourage all members of this House—members of the opposition, members of the government and the crossbench—to talk to the providers in their electorates that provide services around domestic violence to make an application for the safe places package. We want to provide an additional 450 safe places for women and children fleeing domestic violence. The safe places package will open at the end of this month. All members in this House, if you're listening, at the end of this month the safe places package opens. It will close on 14 February, so those services have got a bit of time to get that in. We want to make sure new safe places are built right around the country.

A number of members spoke about the fact that social housing hasn't grown. There has been an underinvestment by state governments of all persuasions for a couple of decades now and funding isn't keeping pace with what is required. We're also seeing that a number of people move into social housing and they never get out of it. There needs to be more responsibility, I guess, from state governments to help people who are able to get back into the workplace to then move on from social housing so that it will provide a flowthrough effect for people currently on the waiting list. The government, of course, have a number of things that we're implementing as well, including the first home deposit scheme and the First Home Super Saver Scheme, to help people get into their own place. In particular, I want to thank the community housing sector for providing a lot of accommodation right throughout the country but particularly in New South Wales. They are helping people in private sector areas where there are high rents, particularly in Sydney, to have an affordable place to live.

In the last few months, one of my responsibilities has been the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, so I've been meeting with state ministers around the country. In the last few weeks, I've met or spoken with Minister de Brenni, the Labor housing minister in Queensland; Minister Wynne, the Victorian housing minister; and Minister Tinley, the Western Australian minister. I've also met in this place with Minister Gerry McCarthy, the Northern Territory minister; Minister Jaensch, from Tasmania; and Minister Pavey.

When we look at homelessness, 10 per cent of people who are homeless are rough sleepers. That means that 90 per cent of homeless people have a roof over their heads. I think a lot of members don't know that. I know that many people would think, in relation to homelessness, that it's only rough sleepers. But, as a number of members have already said, it's boarding houses, it's transitional housing, it's couch surfing and it's overcrowding. Every state has different issues. In Tasmania, rough sleepers, particularly around Hobart, are an issue. But, in the Northern Territory, of the 13,000 homeless people, for 11,000 the problem is overcrowding. A lot of those are in Indigenous places. I've written to every member and senator in this place explaining that, and I look forward to working with others, particularly our Indigenous members, to work out ideas around overcrowding and cultural sensitivities there.

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