Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, I present the committee's report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled Final report: inquiry into homelessness in Australia, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—On behalf of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, I rise today to present the committee's final report of the inquiry into homelessness in Australia. This week is national Homelessness Week, which is a reminder that homelessness is all too common in Australia. Each night, tens of thousands of Australians are without a place to call home. On the night of the last census, in 2016, the number of homeless people in Australia was over 116,000. Many thousands more are at risk of becoming homeless. This could be because of financial insecurity, relationship or family breakdown, or family, domestic and sexual violence. Homelessness can have profound and long-term impacts on a person's safety and security, their physical and mental health, their connection to the community and their ability to thrive in school or the workplace. This inquiry commenced in February last year on a referral from Minister Ruston and was an opportunity for the committee to examine Australian governments' collective response to the problem of homelessness, to understand what is and what is not working and to hear about best practice policies and programs both in Australia and overseas.

It's appropriate that this morning the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing is at the table, because in my experience in 53 years of walking this earth I've not seen a housing minister who has been more engaged in dealing with this issue, coming up with programs like HomeBuilder, the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, the First Home Super Saver Scheme and, of course, the increases to JobSeeker and youth allowance. All of these things the federal government are stepping up—things like Commonwealth rent assistance—all the while with the acknowledgement that housing and homelessness remain the principal responsibility of the states and territories.

Over the course of this inquiry, the committee received over 200 submissions and held public hearings over five days in July and August 2020. The committee presented an interim report in October, which examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on homelessness. Unfortunately, this inquiry was somewhat disjointed because of the impacts of COVID and the committee's need to address the family, domestic and sexual violence issue, which was very significant at the time. We needed to put that one ahead of getting this one out.

In this final report, the committee makes 35 recommendations which, taken together, propose a renewed approach to preventing and addressing homelessness in Australia. The committee's report concludes with a significant and overarching recommendation for the establishment of a 10-year national strategy on homelessness. While state and territory governments are primarily responsible for housing and homelessness, a clear and consistent message in evidence given to the committee was that there is a need for a national approach. The committee considers that a national strategy would lead to more cohesive policies, better coordination and more accountability, particularly in relation to the use of Australian government funding by states and territories. A national strategy could also recognise and harness the important roles of local governments, community organisations and the private sector in preventing and addressing homelessness. Most importantly, a national strategy would ensure that all Australian governments have a shared focus on achieving better outcomes for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

In this regard, the committee identified three main areas for reform. First, prevention and early intervention represent the most cost-effective and cost-efficient measures to address homelessness. While acknowledging the work done to date through integrated place based approaches, the committee calls for further work to support, strengthen and integrate prevention and early intervention programs. Second, the principle of housing first should guide all government's responses to homelessness. Put simply, this means that housing should be made available to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness as an immediate priority and a base from which their other needs can be addressed. The committee particularly recognises the importance of providing flexible, wraparound services as part of the housing first strategy to prevent homelessness and associated problems from becoming entrenched. Third, new approaches are needed to address the shortfall in social and affordable housing. While once again noting that states and territories are responsible for the provision of social housing, the committee has identified ways in which the Australian government can work with state, territory and local governments as well as community housing providers, who fulfil such an important role in this space, and other private sector investors to increase the availability of social and affordable housing for those who need it most.

The report includes a range of other observations and recommendations. The committee recognises that certain groups are at greater risk of homelessness than others and that the experience of homelessness can differ from the cities and suburbs to the regional and remote parts of Australia. As such, the committee recommends the design of a new needs based funding model for future funding agreements as well as measures to assist groups such as victims-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence and Indigenous Australians.

Importantly, the report also makes recommendations to improve data collection and reporting to better inform all Australian governments' responses to homelessness. This includes a review of how homelessness is defined and how the homeless population is counted in the census. Whilst the committee has not agreed on all of the recommendations, there are many aspects—in fact, all but one, of the recommendations are bipartisan. That recommendation calls on the Australian government to work with state and territory governments towards implementing consistent national legislation, imposing a three-strikes policy for the eviction of social and affordable housing tenants who repeatedly breach their tenancy obligations. It is true that such a policy shift must be approved by the states and territories. However, a housing first principle does not mean housing no matter what.

The vast majority of public and affordable housing tenants are good tenants. Of that, there is no question. But for the very small minority who repeatedly breach obligations, there must be consequences for those breaches. Without such consequences, that very small minority will not only continue to flout their obligations, but they sometimes make the lives of their neighbours and neighbourhood a misery. There must always be consequences for our actions. Public and affordable housing tenants should be no different.

The committee recognises that there is no quick fix to end homelessness in Australia. Nevertheless, the recommendations in this report highlight a range of ways in which Australian governments can work together to reduce the number of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in this country. The committee expresses its appreciation to the many individuals and organisations who shared their views with the committee and informed the committee's inquiry. The committee especially thanks those who shared their lived experience of homelessness with the committee.

I'd like to acknowledge the hard work of my fellow committee members on both sides of the aisle. Deputy Chair, whilst we haven't agreed on all of the recommendations, there continues a good spirit of willingness to work together for the benefit of our country, and, for that, I thank all members of the committee. I'd also like to thank members of the secretariat, Shennia Spillane, Ashley Stephens, Alasdair Nicholson, Kathleen Blunden, Syann Williams and Stephen Sherlock, and my own staff, particularly Alaina Megson and Johanna Cleary. I commend the report to the House.

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

by leave—As deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, I welcome and appreciate this opportunity to speak to the committee's report following our inquiry into homelessness in Australia. At the outset, I would like to acknowledge the work of the chair, the member for Fisher; the secretariat; and, indeed, my parliamentary colleagues on the committee, thanking them for their contributions to this very timely report. It is apt that we should table this report during National Homelessness Week on one to the most critical issues facing this nation today. More importantly, I'd like to acknowledge the voices of those who very courageously came forward to our committee to share their stories of homelessness with us. I wanted to say: we hear you. Your stories were invaluable and remain critical to our fight to ensure that every Australian has a safe place to call home.

The committee received some 201 submissions and 25 supplementary submissions, and many of those submissions were comprehensive and detailed and provided very important insights into the lived experiences of people affected by homelessness across Australia. We held public hearings across five days, gathering some 28 hours of oral evidence from a vast range of advocates, frontline organisations and government departments who support Australians affected by homelessness. The evidence, expertise and advocacy brought forward to the committee was invaluable to our understanding of this national crisis in Australia.

We know that homelessness is a national crisis. Right now there are more people experiencing homelessness in Australia than ever before. In just one year, rents in Australia have soared by 15.1 per cent. Every day more and more Australians are being locked out of the private rental market. Just last year, 10,000 women and children fleeing violence were turned away from our refuges because there weren't enough beds available. That's more than 27 a night. Just let that sink in.

The failure of this government to show leadership and to take responsibility on this serious issue is unforgiveable, given how long the sector and the broader Australian community have been calling for these issues to be addressed. For eight long years, this government has ignored and neglected the urgent need for more affordable and social housing. Regretfully, this report does not include a single recommendation that will see the construction of any new dwellings. That is a terrible missed opportunity, in my opinion. Without a commitment for increasing investment in social housing, this government is leaving thousands of vulnerable Australians behind, especially women and children who are fleeing violence, older women on low incomes, First Nations families and communities, and veterans. A never-ending stream of parliamentary reports and independent inquiries is telling us all the same thing: we need real action, intervention and leadership to solve what is a national housing crisis.

However, on this issue, the Morrison government seem devoid of a willingness to show any leadership and is unwilling to take any action. The committee has recommended that the federal government introduce a 10-year national strategy on homelessness, and Labor supports and indeed welcomes this recommendation. But we fear it will be ignored, like countless other recommendations from countless other reports. That's why today I join with the government members on this committee in pleading for the federal government to adopt this recommendation. And it is good that the minister sits in this chamber at this time to hear the importance of a bipartisan recommendation. We're asking you to implement this recommendation for a national strategy. It's a very good start. But you have so much catching up to do; it is not funny.

In March this year, Labor committed to developing a national housing and homelessness strategy, and I invite the government to do the same. Labor recognises something that this government simply doesn't, and that is that urgent action is needed to address what is a national crisis. But where the government fails to act, a future Albanese Labor government will. Labor will implement a national strategy to combat homelessness, as this committee has recommended, and we will go one step further with our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. We will build the social and affordable housing that is needed to reduce homelessness across the nation. Sadly, the Morrison government have acted as if this isn't their problem, as if they don't have a responsibility to care for the people of this nation, but, of course, they do.

To be sure, one of the greatest tests for this government will be how it responds to this report. Let's hope this report doesn't sit on the shelves, gathering dust, being used as a paper weight on the desk of a minister, as so many others seem to. Australians deserve better than that. Indeed, Australians demand better than that. It's time to step up and show some real leadership, Mr Morrison.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—This report on homelessness in Australia is very much a missed opportunity, in many ways, although I must say that the work of the chair, the member for Fisher, and the deputy chair has been remarkable. They are two of the hardest-working members of this House. I thank them and my parliamentary colleagues for the work that they have put into this quite large report and the enormous amount of effort that's gone into making the recommendations. I also thank the secretariat, particularly Shennia and Ashley, for their very hard work. A lot of intellectual and other energies have gone into putting the report together, and I thank them and their colleagues very, very much.

When I say this is a lost opportunity, there are certainly some very important recommendations in the report, primarily around having a national policy on housing and on homelessness. My concern, however, is that they're very likely to fall on deaf ears. What has happened, in the way our society has changed, with the current pandemic has exacerbated some of the inequalities in housing that were already developing over the last decade. We've seen housing prices in our major capital cities—indeed, even in some of our regional centres—grow exponentially over the last few years. This has made it much more difficult for those on low incomes to either buy a house or even rent a house or accommodation in even some quite remote places in our regional areas. It's much more difficult for young people, for disadvantaged people and for those on very low incomes to get housing. That is not a good thing, and these inequalities are getting worse, not better. There has been a lack of response from the federal government in reversing these inequalities in housing and certainly in reversing some of the trends we've seen in homelessness over the last decade. I'm very concerned about young people and I'm very concerned about the lack of attention to young people on the fringes of the housing market and those who come from families who don't have a lot of resources, financial or otherwise. In many ways, the most disadvantaged are becoming even more disadvantaged in the housing system. People on low incomes, people with medical problems, people with mental illness, and people with drug and alcohol problems are becoming more and more marginalised, and this report does very little to address that.

I just want to make the point that in terms of health care—which obviously I've worked in for many, many years—one of the primary social determinants of health is housing, and that is very true for children and for young people. It's something that we as a country and as a society should address on an urgent basis. There is urgency of action, because if we don't do what we should be doing to improve access to housing for young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, we will be paying the ongoing price for this for many, many years, in terms of health, in terms of the criminal justice system, in terms of education. There is a need for urgency of action.

Finally, I want to very quickly say something about recommendation 34, or the so-called 'three strikes rule'. I am very, very strongly opposed to this being included in our report. In my work as a paediatrician I treated everyone the same. Princes or paupers were treated the same and that's a very important principle of health care that I have stuck to. Unless you understand the multilayers of disadvantage that many people who are homeless are facing, and you continue to espouse theories like the so-called three strikes law, you will never address the major disadvantages that are occurring in housing and homelessness in a country such as Australia. We are a wealthy country. We should never be evicting people who are suffering from mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, intellectual disability. We should not be placing them in that situation. Yes, I know it is sometimes difficult. I know that and I know that people who are disadvantaged sometimes do bad things. But you must remember that they have families. They have children. They deserve, in a country like Australia, a safe house. The three strike rule goes very much against that and I am totally opposed to it. I think if you think it through you can see what that will do to families who are already severely disadvantaged.

I don't want to say anything more. I would have said more but unfortunately the Federation Chamber—for reasons that aren't clear to me—are not meeting again until October. I will leave my comments at that. I do commend the report. Most of the recommendations are very important ones. I hope there is urgent action on these issues. I thank the Chair, the Deputy Chair, my parliamentary colleagues and the secretariat for what is a commendable report, with those exceptions. Thank you.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just before I call the member for Dunkley, who is going to seek leave, for the information of the member for Macarthur and others, the situation with the Federation Chamber was made clear yesterday, both by myself and by the Manager of Opposition Business. It's quite simply the fact that we have half the number of Speaker's panel members here. Most are doing double shifts. There are a huge number of members trying to remote in—in fact more than 50. The capacity to run that simply isn't there. As a member of the Speaker's panel yourself, member for Macarthur, you know that you want to do more that simply sit in the chamber. You want to participate in the debate. I hope that clears up the confusion.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] by leave—Housing is a human right. We don't always describe it as such in this country because we don't have a national charter of human rights, but it would be the rare person who would put up an argument to say that housing, decent secure shelter, is anything other than a human right, is anything other than necessary to be able to have an engaged, a decent and a happy life. Sadly homelessness can happen to anyone and it's important, as we consider the recommendations of this report, that those of us in this parliament and more widely remember that we're not just talking about one cohort of society. We're not just talking, perhaps, about damaged and difficult people who have spent their lives on the edges. Importantly, that's who we are talking about, and it's our duty to work to make their lives better, but we are also talking about anyone and everyone who can become homeless at any time. Here are two examples from my electorate. Jane, who lives in Frankston and has a son with a disability, this year in May received a notice to vacate her rental property. She can't get any assistance. The state MPs have called all of the caravan parks in my electorate, which are all at capacity and had no availability. A local charity was advising her to stay in her rental unit an order of possession was issued, to try to buy some more time just to find accommodation. Samantha from Seaford in July this year contacted my office because she can't find affordable housing in the area. She said: 'I'm trying my absolute best to create a stable, loving home environment for my daughter, but with the income I receive and the daily cost of living, it's quite simply unmanageable. After I pay our rent and bills, buy food and pay for petrol and child care, I have nothing left.'

That's why the work that the committee—which I'm very proud to be on—has done is important. That's why the minister at the table's response to the recommendations in this report are so important. It's for people like Jane and Samantha. It's for the 44,152 Victorian households waiting for social housing. It's for the people in the south-east and the east of Melbourne, where 32 per cent of Victorians are experiencing homelessness. Forty per cent of people on the social housing waiting list live in these regions, one of which is mine. The Victorian state government's Big Build of $5.6 billion will make a big difference, but we need to have the federal government adopt all but one of the recommendations of this report and work collaboratively with states across the country to do the heavy lifting to address homelessness and housing affordability.

I proudly stand here endorsing the Youth2 Alliance campaign in my electorate, which is advocating for a youth educational foyer and Frankston and Rosebud crisis accommodation for young people, which fits squarely into the housing first model that the chair of the committee spoke about in his contribution, and which all us on the committee enthusiastically endorse. In my electorate and the Mornington Peninsula, there's been a 50 per cent increase in the rate of young people requesting assistance with housing during COVID—some 390 requests in 2019-2020. That's 390 requests from people aged between 15 and 25 for housing, with no crisis accommodation locally and insufficient coordination of assistance. The Youth2 Alliance asked for $15.5 million over four years, which, in the scheme of the money that's been spent recently by the federal government, is nothing. But to people in my community, to young people in my community experiencing homelessness, it is so much. That is for a youth foyer and for crisis accommodation. As I said, it fits squarely into the recommendations of this report, which I endorse wholeheartedly and ask the minister not just to pay lip service to them but to accept them.

On the recommendations of this report, I couldn't put my opposition to recommendation 34 any more eloquently than the member for Macarthur did. We are here to help everyone in their time of need and there are often no people more damaged and more in need than those who are in social housing. I just want to add this plea to the government, to the minister at the table, to the Prime Minister and to the government members of this committee who did endorse that so-called 'three strikes' recommendation: please don't let this recommendation overshadow the positive recommendations in this report. Please do not allow partisan politics to cast Liberal against Labor over our fierce disagreement about this recommendation and to overshadow the positive recommendations in this report. Go out and talk to the media and talk to your communities about why the federal government should adopt a national housing strategy; about why the federal government should invest in social and public and affordable housing; about why young people, like the young people in my electorate of Dunkley, deserve their human right of secure housing now, and to secure their futures so that they can access education and health care and have stability. Talk about those things. Talk about the recommendations and the work put in by all the submitters. Do not turn this report into a partisan wedge attack on one recommendation.

Finally, I want to join with all of the other members of the committee who have spoken today, to thank the chair and deputy chair, who are incredibly hardworking and dedicated members of this parliament, for all of the work they put into this enormous and really important inquiry, and to thank the secretariat, without whom none of us could do the work we do and who make everyone look very good every day.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Question agreed to.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.