Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Cowper is the township of Bellingen—they don't normally vote my way—and there is a group called Housing Matters Action Group. When Housing Matters and the Royal Freemasons, who own a dilapidated aged-care home in Bellingen, came up with a proposal to change that into 42 one- and two-bedroom units for women over 55, I thought it was a brilliant idea. I advocated and fought for it as hard as I could, as did the state member, the member of Oxley, and we both attained $5 million each to put towards changing this old aged-care home into 42 units. All the approvals went through. All the red tape was cut. All the green tape was cut. Nobody suggested it was pork-barrelling, because it was going towards something that would provide housing for women over 55. We know that women over 55 who are facing marriage breakdowns and domestic violence are those at the peak of danger.

As we all know, costs have gone up significantly over the past 18 months to two years. We see it in all the funding that has been through. When the RFBI and Housing Matters were getting final approvals and signing everything off, they came back to me and told me the costs had gone up by 30 per cent. That's not unusual. So we wrote to the minister, Minister King. We explained the circumstances. We explained the proposal. We said how important it was. Do you know what the response was? 'No more money. We're not giving you any more money for this project.' That meant the money that was there could only fund 21 units.

We went back to the minister and said, 'Can we work within the parameters of the agreement?' They said: 'No. If you're only going to provide 21 units, that is outside the 30 per cent within the agreement.' So now it's all up in the air as to whether or not the Royal Freemasons will go ahead. They're providing the land. They're providing the certainty that these units would get built. The former coalition provided the money—it's not costing any more in those Labor budgets. It has been put aside; it's a line item. Yet Labor comes in here and says how important it is to provide housing. Well, I'm sorry, but the response from the minister's office doesn't tell that tale. I call on the minister to review that. I call on the minister to provide that additional 30 per cent funding for this project, for those women who are facing homelessness in the Bellingen Shire and surrounds.

For Labor to come in here and say we don't care about homelessness! There's another project in Kempsey, where we fought for $6.5 million for 26 one- and two-bedroom units for mums and kids fleeing domestic violence and for those on the street—long-term accommodation. So, when you come in here and you accuse us of doing nothing, these are the stories you need to hear. What we don't want to see is division and political partisanship on these very issues. If the minister wants to listen and have a look at that proposal again, I would welcome her up to cut the ribbon. I don't even have to be there. Minister King, you can go up and cut the ribbon. All I'm concerned about is the 42 women over the age of 55 who will have a roof over their heads.

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