Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Fielding, no. I think that is a very simplistic attack and it really does not do justice to the size of the problem. What the government announced the other day was an attempt to have a new approach to try to get kids to school—to try to assist families to ensure that their kids go to school. We all know that that is so important for kids’ chances in life. We announced that we had a program as a last resort to try to help those families deal with the fact that they were just not coping as a result of the other measures that were put in place. That is a serious policy addressed to a serious problem. Homelessness is a serious problem that we are also addressing in a very fundamental way. There is a link between the two, but our approach is to tackle these problems head-on. I stand by both initiatives and they will both contribute to getting a much better result in terms of support for homeless kids.