Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Assistant Minister for Social Services (Senator Fifield) to a question without notice asked by Senator Siewert today relating to the provision of community services.

Unfortunately, the minister did not provide any certainty to the hundreds of organisations that are facing uncertainty over the future of their funding and therefore the services they provide. They provide support and services to hundreds of thousands of Australians. Currently, they do not know whether they have funding and whether they will in fact have to close their doors at the end of June. Many of these organisations have funding commitments, in particular, to staff. I have been told that a number of them have to make a decision by 1 May on whether they will have to put off staff. Unfortunately, they are also in the unenviable situation where staff can see the writing on the wall, because they are concerned about the uncertainty of the future, and are actually leaving. So here we have services that are losing staff. Many of the homeless services, for example, in Western Australia have been told they are not to take on new clients from 31 March. You can already see that this funding uncertainty is having an impact on vulnerable Australians, the people who can least afford this sort of uncertainty and who will suffer the most from uncertainty over these funding decisions.

We are talking about programs such as financial counselling and emergency relief; the Family Relationships Services Program; the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness; Link-Up services; and Youth Connections, although that will last a bit longer. Youth Connections, for example, provide support to 30,000 young people, aged between 15 and 19. They specifically provide, maintain and renew young people's engagement in work, education and training. Again, that is absolutely essential. Family violence programs, particularly under the homelessness partnership agreement, provide services that help, as the name suggests, to address domestic violence. Programs such as A Place Called Home provide support for Indigenous woman and children. Extended after-hours telephone support and strengthening risk management and specific case management for men, children and particularly women affected by domestic violence are all absolutely essential services that are provided by community organisations that already run on the smell of an oily rag.

It is completely unsatisfactory for this government to not be providing an indication to these organisations that they will have ongoing funding so that they can continue to provide these essential services. Questions have to be asked: what will happen to these vulnerable Australians if these services are not provided? How are these organisations supposed to manage their affairs? What are the transitional arrangements the government has in mind if these organisations are not in fact supplied with this funding?

Examples have been given to me of organisations being unable to renew the lease for their premises. So you could well find that these organisations have no premises if and when the government decides it is going to be providing services.

The Prime Minister was in Western Australia a couple of weeks ago and said they would look after the homelessness services. I am afraid that you cannot take that statement to the bank. These homelessness services will not be able to support clients after the end of March and will be losing their staff. What are the government's intentions? If they are not intending to fund these organisations, how do they intend to support the most vulnerable Australians? Take the area of financial counselling and emergency relief as an example. We know that single mothers have been forced onto Newstart and into living in poverty. As a result, the statistics are showing that the number of people needing emergency relief and financial counselling has significantly increased and that it continues to grow. These are the people who will no longer have access to these vital services.

The government need to commit immediately to telling these organisations whether they will get ongoing funding and what the amount of that ongoing funding will be. They need to start those negotiations. Many of these organisations have not had any indication of when the government intend engaging in discussions about ongoing funding and about the nature of their programs. Tell these organisations. For my home state of Western Australia, tell them before 5 April so they know what is going on. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.