Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

You put to the chamber that you were broke and that you could not afford it, and that is what I am pushing back on now. Even if that is your only metric, the study found that governments save on average $3,685 per client in non-homelessness costs in the first year after people receive support. The investment in putting shelter around people, the housing-first approach, saves taxpayers money. That is obviously an important metric and it is something that the federal government should be concerned about—getting the best out of a tight budget. The fact is that the government does not appear to realise that this investment in providing support services up-front which prevent people from dying—people die in winters and they die of heat stress in summer, if they are homeless—can save us money.

This affects organisations like the Albany Halfway House Association, which houses support workers in the Great Southern region. It affects Anglicare WA, which runs Foyer Oxford in Leederville; it affects the WA Division of the Red Cross Society, which runs the Kalgoorlie Aboriginal Visitors Accommodation facility out in the Goldfields and it affects the Private Rental Tenancy Support Service Initiative in north-west metro

These are crucial front-line services that are going to the wall because nothing is happening.

What the state government told my colleague, Ms McLaren, a couple of months ago was that these talks have ceased because the Commonwealth is no longer at the table. So I am not taking a shot at the Western Australian state government, who actually do have some quite innovative policies on housing affordability. The Commonwealth government, just as Senator Fifield appears to be about to do, has left the building, and that is totally inappropriate. Just for the Hansard, Senator Fifield has not left the room; he is taking advice.

Foundation Housing Limited; Pilbara Community Legal Service, who have a domestic violence outreach initiative; and St Bartholomew's House Incorporated, which Senator Siewert and I were very fortunate to tour during the election campaign last year, are where people are going to lose their jobs, and people will lose these emergency support services. It is not good enough for the Australian government to cry poor when the rational thing to do is fund these services. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.