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

Last week during the appropriation bills debate I spoke about how this government is tackling homelessness and congratulated Tanya Plibersek, the federal Minister for Housing, the Victorian Minister for Housing, Local Government and Aboriginal Affairs, Richard Wynne, Commander Carolyn Knaggs and General Eva Burrows from the Salvation Army, and Peter Fox for the private-government partnership on the Upton Road emergency housing for homeless and disadvantaged singles and families in the St Kilda community.

I turn my attention today to the excellent work of the Port Phillip Housing Association, the South Port Community Housing Association and the St Kilda Community Housing group. John Enticott, the general manager of the St Kilda Community Housing group, in a very interesting paper to me, pointed out the untruths of some of the people who said that this government has not fulfilled its promises on homelessness. Certainly in my electorate we have been working very hard with these wonderful voluntary organisations to see that many of the rooming houses and bedsits throughout the electorate have been upgraded and that there are in fact more facilities for people who are in difficult circumstances. The Port Phillip Housing Association has received $9 million, the South Port Community Housing Association has received $15 million and the St Kilda Community Housing group has received $15 million, for a total of $39 million. I am at the opening of nearly all of these projects thanks to people like John Enticott and the Victorian minister.

At Grey Street just the other day I was with my old friend Henry Preston from Momentum Builders. We now have 15 refurbished apartments at the front of 77-79 Grey Street and 17 new apartments. This is the kind of place—Grey Street, St Kilda—where some of the dispossessed of the earth live. It is wonderful to have a mixture of housing in a very expensive area like Melbourne Ports, and St Kilda in particular. At 69 Alma Road the St Kilda housing association has refurbished eight places and has eight new places that will be finished by 30 September. At 79 Blessington Street we have nine refurbished places and three new ones. These projects will be finished by 21 December this year. At 56 Jackson Street, just around the corner from my office, there are 14 refurbished apartments for people in this situation. They will be finished by the end of the year. No. 342 Beaconsfield Parade has had $5.5 million spent on it, with 22 apartments in the front and 14 in the back. Similarly, in Jackson Street and Wellington Street in St Kilda there are more examples of the federal government showing that it really is interested in the issue of homelessness, particularly in a very mixed electorate like Melbourne Ports.