Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been a lot of focus in the last couple of weeks, quite understandably and rightly, on what is correctly called the national water crisis, whether we are talking about the rural and regional areas or many of our major metropolitan cities that are affected. I would like to mention tonight two other issues that I believe are also appropriate to call crisis issues. I believe it is also appropriate to call for national action on these crisis issues. By calling for national action, I do not necessarily mean the national, or federal, government taking over responsibility in a lawful sense, as, for example, has been suggested with the Murray-Darling Basin and as has been done with the workplace relations laws. What I am talking about is recognition at the federal government level that these issues are crises in the Australian community that need urgent national focus, action and leadership at the federal level.

The first of these issues is the affordable housing crisis. The second of these issues is the crisis in child protection. I will speak firstly about the affordable housing crisis, something I have spoken about a number of times in the Senate over the years, although the stats, the figures, the stories and the reality at the community level have continued to get worse and worse. We would all know of and would all have seen over the last couple of months, and even prior to that, the increasing number of stories pointing to severe problems with housing affordability and access to houses, not just in the capital cities but increasingly in many regional centres as well.

I know that in Queensland, for example, many of the cities up the coast, particularly those that are feeder cities to some of the mines in the area, have even greater availability problems than Brisbane has. It is a simple fact that the cost of housing, whether you are talking about trying to purchase a home or renting a home, has been increasing dramatically, far out of proportion to any increase in earnings. The simple fact is that for a person to be able to afford a house it now takes a much larger amount of that person’s total income or a much greater number of years of that person’s average income than it took even a decade ago. During the last decade average house prices relative to income have almost doubled. The proportion of first home buyers has fallen dramatically. Average monthly payments on new loans have increased by about 50 per cent. Opportunities to rent public housing have fallen by about 20 per cent. More than 1½ million lower income Australians, especially renters and recent purchasers, are incurring housing costs above 30 per cent of their income.

I point to some reports out today. For example, the Housing Industry Association’s chief economist was quoted as saying that the gap between the cost of new housing and what median- and low-income households can afford to pay is wider than ever. Stable interest rates will not bridge that gap. Only government action will. It is similarly the case in the rental area, and these figures are from Melbourne but they are similar to those for many other cities. According to the Tenants Union of Victoria, the median weekly rent in Victoria has risen to its highest level ever and, despite Melbourne’s inner area holding more than a fifth of all rental properties available, less than one per cent of those properties are affordable, putting them off limits to a whole section of the Australian community. That means opportunities to rent them are also being kept off limits.

There needs to be national action in this area. There needs to be a national agenda for it. There needs to be an attempt to work together in a much more forceful way in this area, with much greater leadership and in conjunction with the states. We have got to have an end to the blame shifting and finger pointing between the state and federal governments. We have the ridiculous scenario of story after story of extreme affordability problems, of people not being able to find accommodation anywhere close to where their work is, for example, or where there education is. The response we get is state government ministers blaming the federal government for not putting enough money into public housing or for their tax regime distorting the market in favour of investors and speculators, and the federal government blaming the states over stamp duty and for not releasing enough land. There is no one single reason why housing affordability has become such a crisis. There are a range of things that need to be done. That is why it needs a cooperative effort and that is why it needs a national effort. Until there is recognition of it, a willingness to accept that this is a serious problem for a large number of people in the Australian community and we get some leadership at a national level, it is going to continue to worsen. There was an affordable housing summit held in Parliament House in mid-2004 because of the housing crisis then. Since then we have had no action and the crisis has got worse. We need action in this area.

I also want to point to the appalling figures with regard to child abuse and neglect in Australia. I believe this area can also quite legitimately be called a national crisis. It is not being alarmist to call it that. Looking at recent figures from the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, I note that up to 20 per cent of Australian children are being neglected or sexually, physically or mentally abused every year. That is more than 550,000, to quote a figure from NAPCAN. Reports of child abuse in Australia have almost doubled in the past four years. That is due in part to greater awareness and to greater encouragement for people to report suspected child abuse.

Not all reports are validated of course. Suspected child abuse does not always mean actual abuse, and it is important to be accurate about that sort of statement. Nonetheless, when you drill down into the figures, there is no doubt that there are hundreds of thousands of Australian children who are quite clearly being subjected to abuse and neglect around the country and in all parts of society: in cities and in regional areas, and in poor areas and in wealthy areas. Every abused child is not only a tragedy but a long-term cost to our community, both in lost opportunity through the damage done to that child and in wider, long-term costs dealing with the consequences of the damage. It is an economic issue as well as a social issue, and it is a serious issue.

Clearly, for a range of reasons, state government authorities have not been able to adequately handle the issue, despite some genuine efforts and significant increases in funding. That to me says that there is a wider problem here. There is a wider issue that needs a non-partisan national approach. Again, this is something I have spoken about a number of times in this chamber. In Child Protection Week last year we had an urgency debate about it. We had a resolution that was eventually passed unanimously by the Senate calling on this to be made a national priority. That is all good, but agreeing to statements that it should be made a national priority is not much good unless there is follow-through action.

I am not saying that nothing is being done. There are bits and pieces of things being done at the federal level. There are some individual funding packages going in different places. That is all welcome. I fully accept that in large part this is the responsibility of the states, so I am not calling for a national takeover. I am not even calling for a massive bucket of money. Clearly, whilst resourcing is an issue, it is not going to be solved just by putting more and more child protection workers on. We have got to have much more focus on prevention and we have got to have, frankly, a much more honest look in the mirror at our whole society to try to figure out what is going on here, because it simply cannot be allowed to continue at this rate. The damage done to the fabric of our society, to the fabric of our future, is very serious and really cannot be underestimated. Again, it is an area where I do not think the national government can just say, ‘It’s the states’ problem. Go talk to them.’ It needs national leadership. It needs people working together. I repeat my call and the Democrats’ call for that to happen on this issue and the other crisis issue of housing affordability.