Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just over 12 months ago the suburb of Macquarie Fields experienced four nights of rioting. The scenes televised on the news each night were not pleasant, and the events of those nights have had a lasting effect on the residents of Macquarie Fields and the surrounding suburbs. Unlike the more recent riots in suburbs like Cronulla, which have been put down to racial tensions, it seems to everyone—parents, grandparents, children, community workers and certainly the police—in the community of Macquarie Fields that, putting aside the trigger for the events, those few nights of violence and disorder were the product of frustration.

Unlike recent riots in beachside suburbs, things have not returned to normal nearly as quickly in Macquarie Fields. The physical signs of the events have long gone but the social impacts on members of the community continue. Sadly, all too regularly I hear reports of young people who are applying for jobs being faced with comments about the riots, just because they happen to live in or around Macquarie Fields. Some have even gone so far as to put down different addresses, outside the postcode area, just for an opportunity to get through the first cull of job applicants.

You would be hard pressed to find any local who believes that life is easy in the public housing estates of Macquarie Fields, Ingleburn or Minto. It is not. Many residents rely on the support services provided by government to help them manage their daily lives. In the main the residents of these areas are great people, and I am proud to be their representative in this place. The residents of public housing estates in suburbs like Macquarie Fields face some fundamental disadvantages in life, but they are supported by a number of organisations that seek to overcome this disadvantage through the delivery of excellent support services.

There is no doubt that the residents of these areas have been consistently ignored by this government. While they are battlers, they are not the Howard battlers living in marginal seats. Rather they are the victims of this government’s neglect when it comes to funding for public housing, which has experienced a real reduction of 30 per cent since 1996. They are the victims of the government’s obsession with the lowest priced delivery of government funded support services.

The key to improving areas of substantial disadvantage is consistency and relations building between service providers and those needing the support services. A model of government funding that simply seeks to give grants to providers by way of a competitive tender often does not result in the level of consistency required to achieve outcomes. Today I have written to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, proposing the adoption of an affirmative action plan for Macquarie Fields. Under this plan, competitive tendering for federal government grants for the provision of social services would cease for a period of five years with a view to allowing consistent service provision in areas of fundamental disadvantage. This plan will shift the focus off the cost of services and put it back onto what is being delivered.

No longer will the federal government’s responsibility be considered to be discharged simply through the provision of funding, rather it will shift the focus to the delivery of real solutions. The plan does not propose that competitive tendering for these services be scrapped altogether but that it be suspended for a period of time. Rather than seeking the cheapest provider, the government would shift its focus to performance management in small and highly targeted areas to achieve some positive outcomes in communities that are in considerable need. The plan may allow service providers to come together, possibly to pool funds and establish programs with a whole-of-community focus rather than have a model for programs delivered in isolation due to funding constraints.

A coordinated approach has had some success with young people in the Macarthur region, through the Macarthur Youth Commitment. The Macarthur Youth Commitment, which may lose its funding later this year, is an organisation that has established a network to inform strategic planning and actions to build partnerships in the area, and it has had some very significant success.

I encourage the minister to seriously consider this plan so that action may be taken to break the cycle of unemployment, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and child neglect that has come to characterise some areas within our community. A small-scale, sensible and targeted affirmative action strategy can only have a positive impact. (Time expired)