Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to commend the Salvation Army on their prospective new crisis centre, which is to be erected in my electorate. It is addressing the issue of homelessness in a very thoughtful way—an issue which, since this new government and Prime Minister have been in office, we have been addressing in a much more serious way.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics report released in September showed there were 105,000 Australians who were homeless on census night in 2006, up from 99,900 in 2001, with 16,000 rough sleepers in 2006, up from 14,000 five years earlier. Homelessness amongst kids under 12 has increased by 22 per cent since 2001, with 2,192 more children under 12 without a home on census night in 2006. There are more than 14,000 homeless people in metropolitan Melbourne, and that number has doubled since the 1990s. The rate of homelessness in Melbourne is almost four times that of regional Victoria. Many of these people often have severe mental health problems compounded by drug and alcohol addiction. It is numbers like these that have led the Labor government to refocus Commonwealth efforts to tackle homelessness after years of neglect by the previous government. My area, St Kilda, seems to attract many of these people because of the very thoughtful, hard work of organisations like the Sacred Heart Mission, who provide a healthy, free lunch every lunchtime for many of the people with mental health, drug or alcohol problems. They served 600 meals the day after Christmas, and they are to be commended for their work.

On 7 October I attended a meeting between the Minister for Housing and the Salvation Army about a great new project in my electorate. The Salvation Army now have under construction a new purpose-built crisis accommodation centre. They currently have a smaller crisis accommodation centre that is insufficient to meet the demand that I have just described. Traditionally crisis accommodation has been dorm style, literally putting people—often with severe mental health, drug and alcohol problems—on top of each other. This new project will see each tenant living in a more dignified circumstance with their own apartment. Rather than the high-density, multistorey accommodation blocks of the past, this new model involves low-density, often single-storey, family and single accommodation units.

At the meeting I attended with the Minister for Housing, Ms Plibersek, whose own electorate of Sydney faces similar housing problems to my electorate, the minister was impressed by the possibilities of this new project. She indicated that she would make sure that the federal government would do what they can to help with the project. The project is a good example of how all levels of government, NGOs and business can work together to achieve important social goals. The Salvation Army has worked with the Port Phillip Council and the state government on planning issues and the state government has provided $2 million in funding. Business has provided $1.5 million in support of this project. The Salvation Army still needs $3.5 million but it is hopeful about its prospects, especially in light of the federal government’s new focus on homelessness.

I would like to acknowledge some of the people from the Salvation Army who have played a significant role in getting this program off the ground: Paul Bourke, the program manager, Jenny Plant, the crisis services manager; Doug Parker, the operations manager; the campaign board, known as New Life, which includes Chairman Margaret Jackson AC and patrons Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC, DBE and Baillieu Myer AC. It was also my very great honour and pleasure at that meeting with the minister to meet the great and famous Australian General Eva Burrows AC. I also want to commend Peter Fox of Linfox. He has put half a million dollars of his own money into this centre and is busy raising another $1 million through business donations.

If everything goes according to plan, this important new centre will be finished in April or May of next year. I have seen the site on which it is to be built, at the beginning of St Kilda Road. I could not think of more appropriate, secure accommodation for people with these kinds of problems to benefit from. I commend the Salvation Army on their important and practical work to address the issue of homelessness.