Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore for her question. This is an extremely important issue for people with a disability and also for the many thousands of families and carers who want to ensure that in future there is supported accommodation for members of their families. Recently the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, Senator McLucas, announced that $60 million is now available under the government's new Supported Accommodation Innovation Fund to provide housing for people with a disability. This funding will deliver up to 150 innovative, community based, supported accommodation places, with the Australian government providing the capital funding. As Senator McLucas has said, people with disability are desperate for more accommodation options, and this new fund will encourage innovation in the way supported accommodation services are provided. The government is looking to community organisations to develop accommodation options so that they can bring in their local support networks as well as their existing resources—resources such as land—to help leverage the funding. This funding, of course, is on top of the Australian government's $100 million capital injection in 2008 to build more than 300 supported accommodation places for people with disability, which are on track to be delivered by 2012. This funding will also help people with a severe disability to live as independently as possible in the community and to fulfil their potential.

Senators would also be aware that we are building the foundations for a National Disability Insurance Scheme into the future. This reform is quite possibly the most significant social policy reform since Medicare and is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. But we know that it is going to take time, and the government are acutely aware that the demand for better services and for supported accommodation is upon us now.