Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) over 105,000 Australians are currently defined as homeless throughout the nation;

(b) on any given night this translates to 1 in 200 Australians homeless or sleeping rough; and

(c) great work is done by organisations such as Homelessness Australia and countless local charities in their support for homeless people right across the country; and

(2) notes that:

(a) the current Government has made significant cuts to front line youth services putting more young people at the risk of homelessness;

(b) the current Government has made significant cuts to domestic violence services putting more woman and children at risk of homelessness; and

(c) more needs to be done to address homelessness in Australia.

I rise today to speak on the very shocking fact that at this present moment over 105,000 people within Australia are defined as experiencing homelessness. That is a huge number. It is indeed a very sad indictment on our nation. In fact, if you break down that very large number it translates into one in 200 Australians—men, women and children—on any one night who are experiencing homelessness to some degree. That figure does in fact take into account everything from sleeping rough in our cities and towns across the nation right through to people who are forced to rely on others or who may be couch surfing. It encompasses all of those particular situations.

All ages and backgrounds are vulnerable to homelessness; however, some are more vulnerable to this than others. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for instance, account for over a quarter of all Australians who are experiencing homelessness, despite making up only 2.5 per cent of the population.

What is also very disturbing is the ever-increasing number of women and children who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. The single biggest cause of this is domestic violence. Can I say as a former police officer I witnessed such outcomes firsthand, all too often in relation to women and children who were fleeing domestic violence situations. The reality for many women and children is that they do become homeless because they have no other options in those situations. That is why, particularly in my area, the North Coast of New South Wales, there has been a lot of criticism of the New South Wales government's cuts to services that provide support for victims of domestic violence. Indeed, it is why there has been so much criticism of the Abbott government's cuts to community services and to services for those who have been impacted by domestic violence.

Quite frankly, the statistics on homelessness are shocking and alarming, with women, children and younger people being disproportionately represented, but in saying that I would like to acknowledge the work by many organisations throughout the country, such as Homelessness Australia. I especially acknowledge the many groups in my electorate of Richmond who respond to this problem in our communities on a daily and nightly basis. Some of those individuals and groups are Dennis Pommer and Lunch with Friends, John Lee and You Have A Friend, Tweed Valley Women's Service, St Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army. They do an incredible job assisting people who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. Also, I wish to acknowledge groups such as Byron Community Centre, Byron Youth Service and the Cottage Drop-in Centre, which also do really committed and important work for the people at risk of homelessness on the North Coast.

We have also seen the impact of the Abbott governments cruel cuts in relation to youth services, particularly at the Byron Youth Service. Cuts to funding programs like Youth Connections, mean that that service may have to close. People are so reliant on that service. Now the Byron Youth Service is desperately raising money through the community, but they should not have to do that. This government has no plans to replace programs like Youth Connections, which is a really important program that really does help younger people in so many ways, particularly in finding other ways for them to finish year 12. Other participants, who are now engaged in study or work after they have completed that program, have had a great success rate.

When you talk to service providers around the country they will tell you a number of things in relation to homelessness. They will tell you that the Abbott government, and its cruel cuts to youth services, particularly domestic violence prevention programs, is pushing ever-increasing numbers of people towards homelessness and marginalisation. As I have said, cuts we have seen on the North Coast have meant many of those organisations are close to closing their doors. We have had many service providers tell us that the Abbott government must act immediately and work with the states and territories to implement policies and programs to increase the supply of affordable and social housing stock across Australia. Instead, the government is cutting all these programs and cutting measures designed to address a significant and growing reality of homelessness. They are hurting those that are most vulnerable within our community, particularly with their cuts to family violence services and to homelessness and crisis accommodation services across the country. Altogether, those cuts are worth a staggering $300 million. That is a huge cut that we are seeing to some vitally important services.

The fact is more, not less, needs to be done to reduce homelessness in this country. The government needs to stop cutting services and start doing more. It should be listening to all those service providers right across the country. It should provide funding for emergency support and crisis service, but it also needs funding to reduce some of the causes of homelessness as well. It requires a really complex approach to address all of those issues. So I call on the government to do a lot more and to do that right now. (Time expired)

Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I rise today to speak on this important motion from the point of view that homelessness is a national issue for our country. As we know there are over 100,000 people that are currently defined as homeless. I start my contribution by making the points that the government recognises this and is responding to this in the appropriate way. That is why earlier this year the Minister for Social Services announced the government will continue to fund frontline homelessness service through the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. This program funds around 180 different programs and services for people who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. These programs assist 80,000 people each year and employ more than 3,000 staff.

The government will provide $230 million over two years from July 2015 to continue this program. This offer is subject to the states and territories matching our commitment to homelessness funding through the national partnership agreement. The previous government, as we know, did not provide funding in the forward estimates, which questions their commitment to this important area in our society beyond 30 June 2014. I do question the member for Richmond's commitment, being a member of the former government.

We know homelessness is not a choice. It can happen to anyone. People who are experiencing homelessness are among the most marginalised people in Australia. It is one of the most potent examples of disadvantage in the community. This is why the work of groups such as the Hutt Street Centre in Adelaide, Fred's Van in Semaphore, Anglicare, Salvation Army, Uniting Care, St Vincent de Paul Society and OzHarvest are so important. I would like to take the opportunity to thank and recognise these important organisations.

The Hutt Street Centre is one of the leading front-line agencies providing essential services such as a meal and day centre to people facing homelessness and disadvantage in Adelaide. They provide basic services, such as a bathroom and laundry and locker facilities, but also look at housing assistance and medical support. I want to congratulate Ian Cox and his team at the Hutt Street Centre for their ongoing dedication and commitment to fixing this complex issue and providing for those in need.

Fred's Van at Semaphore, just on the northern part of my electorate, is another organisation I have supported and volunteered at during Anti-Poverty Week. They work with Vinnies and support some of the most vulnerable people in our community, who experience a range of issues such as homelessness, social isolation and unemployment, providing approximately 500 meals a week. I want to congratulate the work of the volunteers at Mary's Kitchen, an outreach program supervised by Uniting Care in Glenelg. Operating from St Andrew's hall in Jetty Road at Glenelg, they do a wonderful job providing meals and fellowship for those in need.

Last year, I arranged the Hindmarsh Christmas Appeal, which called on the community to provide non-perishable items to Mary's Kitchen. It was a great success, and I thank the community for their support of this initiative. I have recently doorknocked for the Salvation Army around Glenelg, where donations were received to help finance the Salvo's vast network of social and community services, such as the 50,000 meals they provide each year for the hungry.

No doubt, we all want to end homelessness in Australia and we all want to see improvement on the current situation. According to Homelessness Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are numerous reasons why people are experiencing homelessness. It is no secret that mental health and substance abuse are significant contributors to this complex issue, as is the impact of domestic violence. We are not just talking about this. We are rolling out initiatives and dedicating resources and focus, such as the National Ice Taskforce, in this area. There is $87 million worth of funding for drug and treatment front-line services. In terms of addressing the scourge of domestic violence, we have made a $100 million contribution to the second action plan under the national plan and we have recently announced the $30 million national awareness campaign.

As previously stated, we have $230 million going to the NPAH program. We will also continue funding for the youth homelessness Reconnect program, a community based early intervention program for young people from 12 to 18 years of age who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and for their families, and the federal government announced a youth services program in the recent budget. We know that employment is important and we need to provide incentives and support for young people, just as we need to do for others, because the best form of welfare is a job, employment and opportunities. In finishing, I would like to talk about the Hutt Street Centre's walk a mile in my boots initiative, and I encourage everyone to get involved in this great initiative.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak today to this motion raised by member for Richmond and I thank her for her tremendous advocacy of these front-line support services for homeless people and for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House. As outlined in the terms of the motion, over 105,000 Australians are currently homeless, meaning that on any given night one in 200 Australians are homeless or sleeping rough. In their latest report on homelessness, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that in my electorate of Newcastle and the surrounding Lake Macquarie region 97 people are living in improvised dwellings, tents or sleep-outs, 253 people are in supported accommodation for the homeless, 270 are staying temporarily with other households, 271 people are staying in boarding houses or in other temporary lodging and 182 people are living in severely crowded dwellings, making a total of 1,073 in and around my electorate being identified as homeless.

Unfortunately, as outlined in the Salvation Army's annual Economic and social impact survey released just last month, rather than improving, homelessness is in fact getting worse. The Salvation Army's research found that, in the past two years, rates of homelessness and couch surfing were increasing, with the number of Australians accessing homelessness services in 2013-14 increasing by four per cent and the rate of couch surfing increasing by an astonishing 26 per cent, compared to the 2012 figures.

The Salvation Army has defined the situation for individuals and families experiencing housing stress and homelessness as dire. I recently visited one of the frontline service providers in my electorate, Wesley Mission Services, and met with the operations manager, Paul Procter. Their support services have been under particular stress recently in the aftermath of the devastating storms in Newcastle. Their regular breakfast service, staffed entirely by volunteers now, often sees more than 40 people gathering for a meal. Fridays are especially busy as many people know this could well be their last meal before Monday, with all of the community-kitchen services in my region now no longer able to operate over the weekend. Mr Procter told me that they had a steady increase of people accessing their services, but unfortunately they have been compelled to let go of staff and cut programs. Organisations like the Salvation Army, Wesley Mission, Homelessness Australia and countless other small and large community based groups are doing everything in their power to address this dire circumstance, but the Abbott-Liberal government are not making their job any easier. In fact, you could argue they are making life a lot more difficult for the support-service organisations and, consequently, those people in need.

I do of course welcome the government's back-track on the cuts to direct homelessness funding and the two-year extension of funding announced in March, but it must be asked if the government really understand the issue at hand, with their cuts to other programs that go to addressing and supporting those at risk of homelessness and the lack of any new funding in this year's budget. The government has made significant cuts to frontline youth services, putting more young people at risk of homelessness. This is in addition to their ongoing plans to leave young jobseekers with no support for four weeks. They have made major cuts to domestic violence services, putting more women and children at risk of homelessness. A partially funded awareness campaign was the only domestic violence measure announced in the federal budget, leaving frontline workers aghast at critical funding gaps. The government's lack of commitment was questioned by independent community organisation Fair Agenda, who consulted experts prior to the budget to determine what funding was required to address family violence. Not one of the nine crucial funding areas that they identified were addressed in this year's budget.

In my own electorate, the Hunter Community Legal Centre have raised serious concerns at their capacity to meet the growing needs of the most vulnerable in our community in the face of ongoing funding uncertainty. Likewise, this budget contained no funds for the Newcastle Domestic Violence Resource Centre, which fills a service delivery gap to meet the needs of people experiencing domestic violence. This service is run entirely by volunteers, receives no government funding whatsoever and exists solely as an initiative of Jenny's Place—a women's refuge service in my community. It is time this government stepped up to the mark and addressed the root causes of homelessness, and the existing needs, and committed to funding these vital services in our community.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the member's motion on homelessness. One of the biggest factors affecting homelessness in Australia is the issue of housing affordability. A good place to start, to see where we are today, is to go back to 'The Forgotten People' speech of Sir Robert Menzies back in 1942. Menzies said:

The material home represents the concrete expression of saving 'for a home of our own'. Your advanced socialists may rage against private property (even whilst they acquire it); but one of the best instincts in us is that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a house and a garden which is ours, to which we can withdraw, in which we can be among our friends, into which no stranger may come against our will.

We understood the social and economic importance of home ownership. In the 1950s, around 50 per cent of the Australian population owned their own home. But in the 1960s and 1970s, because we understood the importance of home ownership, that numbers increased to 70 per cent and stayed there for around 20 years. In fact, in 1981, we got to almost 74 per cent of people owning their own homes in this country.

But since then we have gone backwards. From the high of 73.4 per cent, today we are down at just 64 per cent of Australians owning their own home. That is a nine per cent fall over the last couple of decades. That means around 900,000 Australians now rent a place and do not own their own house. If you drill down into those numbers, the facts are even worse for people aged 45 to 54. Their numbers have fallen even further. Their numbers have fallen 15 per cent in terms of home ownership. Of course, even for those with a home, a far greater percentage have a mortgage and owe more on their mortgage.

Why have we got ourselves into this problem? It has not been the cost of housing construction. Where the free market has been allowed to work in housing construction, entrepreneurs have worked out how to build things more cheaply, how to make things more cheaply and how to make furniture more cheaply. But we have had government interference in the market, limiting the supply of new land releases, which has caused an increase in housing prices. The complete absurdity of the situation! There are around nine million households in Australia. If we wanted to, we could depopulate the mainland, move every household to Tasmania, give each household a one acre block and still have almost half of Tasmania left aside for national parks.

In our country, with our landmass, the fall in housing affordability and increase in housing prices is a complete crime against our younger generation. And it has been done for failed ideas—the idea that it is somehow better that we congest our cities, crowd everyone into them and pack them into high-rise apartments. In fact, there was a great report several years ago called Children in the Compact Citythat showed the detrimental effects on children living in high-rise apartments. Studies have shown that you actually use more energy, more electricity, living in a high-rise apartment than you do in a detached house.

We need to go back to those principles that we had in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and put housing affordability back on the priority list. The Treasurer has been misquoted, but if we look at his comments, he is right. He said we need to build, build, build. That is exactly what we need to do. We need to ensure that we are releasing land in this country and that there are jobs in our regional centres by moving government departments to our regional centres. We need to look at stamp duty—the absurdity that, in Sydney today, if you want to move from, say, the Sutherland Shire to the northern suburbs, you will pay stamp duty of around $35,000. That is a $35,000 tax on someone who wants to move internally. That has gross economic effects on the nation. Also what we need to do is ensure that we get the housing supply back, because that is what will affect housing affordability. If we can get housing affordability for our younger generation, that is the best way that we can also affect homelessness.

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The degradation and inequity caused by homelessness are a blight on our civilised society. As the motion reflects, on any given night over 100,000 Australians are without a home. Here in the ACT we have the second-highest rate of homelessness in the country, behind only the Northern Territory. On census night in 2011, 1,785 Canberrans were homeless. The total homeless numbers were up since the 2006 census, albeit that the number of rough sleepers for the ACT was down.

I want to speak to two common misconceptions about homelessness and to use evidence from my own home town to provide clear illustrations as to why those notions are false. The first misguided perception is that homeless people have no-one to blame but themselves; if they could just work harder, some say, then their lot would improve. But people fall into homelessness for a variety of reasons as compelling as they are indiscriminate: domestic violence, housing unaffordability and mental illness are common drivers of homelessness. Understanding the real drivers of homelessness demonstrates that any of us can find ourselves without a home for reasons out of our control. The shafts of fate can strike into any household and that is why we need a strong safety net to catch those who fall.

Another misconception is that all homeless people conform to the image of an older man sleeping rough on the street, but that too presents an incomplete picture. While rough sleepers can feel the effects of homelessness most acutely, many homeless people are neither middle aged nor male and nor are they rough sleeping. Joseph Walker, an intern in my office who assisted in preparing these remarks, compiled statistics from the ACT's FirstPoint showing that 67 per cent of the ACT's homeless are under 25 and that children, together with women, form the ACT's largest homeless cohort. Only two per cent of the ACT's homeless sleep on the streets. Most live in supported accommodation or with family and friends. They are couch surfing in fragile home circumstances.

The question remains of what can be done. Governments, community organisations and the private sector need to work together to combat the causes and consequences of homelessness. We need to recognise too that the providing of a sustainable social safety net is part of tackling homelessness. The Rudd government's decision in 2009 to boost the single age pension by over $1,600 a year reduced relative poverty by a fifth. That, in itself, improved the ability of many people to afford accommodation. Alongside government solutions, community organisations offer an important lifeline to those who might otherwise fall through the cracks. Organisations such as Samaritan House-St Vincent De Paul Society in Hackett, the Early Morning Centre in the city and Common Ground in Gungahlin, which will soon open, provide vital services to Canberra's homeless. But they need funding to survive and the Abbott government's decision to rip $44 million out of homelessness services in last year's budget, without restoring it in 2015, has left many of those organisations on the brink. That the government could slash those services, yet refuse to ask multinationals to pay their fair share of tax, suggests to me warped priorities in a nation as affluent as our own.

Homelessness is part of the broader conversation around inequality and housing affordability. The member for Hughes spoke about the issue of housing affordability and made some statements with which I would agree. It is important that we encourage states to follow the lead of the ACT in making a transition from stamp duty—a tax on mobility—towards land tax. It is important that we have resources available to encourage developers to carry out infill. The O'Farrell government's short-sighted decision to cancel medium-density developments along the North Shore train line is one of those policies that will act to make housing more unaffordable. We also need a federal government prepared to invest in urban public transport. The Abbott government's decision not to invest in urban public transport, again, makes it more difficult to tackle the challenges of housing affordability. This is also part of the big challenge of inequality now at a 75-year high in Australia. If Australia is to successfully tackle inequality it will involve us dealing with the most vulnerable, among whom are Australia's homeless.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Access to safe and secure housing is a basic human right. More than 105,000 people are defined as homeless throughout the nation. Homelessness is not a choice but is, in fact, one of the harshest manifestations of disadvantage and a genuine marker of social exclusion. I acknowledge the work done by Homelessness Australia in supporting vulnerable people not just in WA but also across the country. In Western Australia, nearly 10,000 people are homeless at this moment. Domestic violence is the most prevalent reason for the homelessness in WA, followed by financial hardship.

It is established that, more broadly, domestic and family violence is one of the top five pathways to homelessness, alongside other indicators which include mental health and youth. In relation to the government's commitment to reducing the scourge of domestic and family violence, I want to make it very clear that, contrary to the member for Richmond's assertion, there have been no cuts whatsoever in funding to services to assist vulnerable Australians. To suggest that is the case is totally deceptive and misleading. I will put on the record here that the government has in fact not cut funding to family violence prevention legal services or to frontline family law services and that there have been no cuts to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. In fact, my colleague Minister Scott Morrison has announced that we are providing $230 million to extend the NPAH for two years to 30 June 2017, with a specific focus on women and children affected by domestic violence. This includes projects that support women to remain safe in their homes. This is after Labor failed to make any plan for the future funding of homelessness services, with no allocation for continued funding of the NPAH after 30 June 2014. The accusation that government has cut funding to domestic violence services is totally false.

I will also take this opportunity to point out that it was the coalition who acted, after coming into government, to restore $115 million in funding for the homelessness partnership for that current year. The commitment, as I have indicated, has been extended for a further two years. In March, the government announced a $30 million campaign to further raise awareness of this scourge on our community through jointly funded programs between the Commonwealth and states. Last month, the Prime Minister announced an advisory panel to reduce violence against women which will report by the end of the year on a number of criteria.

What is important are the underlying issues that impact on families. In my own electorate, in working with Rotary and another number of other organisations and also working with the knights of St John's Order, there is a focus on homeless people whose circumstances have arisen through a number of factors and reasons, and in the process we as a society need to reach out. When we argue over funding and when we argue over differences in political stances or political positioning, we often forget to take a position that is humanitarian in the way that we re-engage people back into pathways. Mental illness is a particular challenge for us in terms of how we consider those who are homeless and experience mental illness, those who are in transition from prisons and those whose family circumstances have changed—including couch surfing.

In a sense, I take issue with the member for Richmond's comments because what we should be focusing on is the root causes and looking at how we change those. It is through that process that we can start to seriously think about how we provide those pathways that will better re-engage people into those things that they once aspired to do. Every human being has in their aspiration a pathway that as a child and in moving forward they want to take. The sad part is, the reality is, that we do end up with those whose journeys, choices and decisions lead them to a state of homelessness, including through the influence of drugs.

In my own electorate there are a number of organisations who provide incredible services and there are agencies working to assist people facing hardships. I thank them for their efforts in working with young people and with adults who already feel potentially lonely and desperate and may be on the verge of disengaging with family, friends and the community. In those instances, those programs provide a bridge that gives them comfort, gives them some certainty and gives them the opportunity to be part of the community in which they live.

Debate adjourned.