Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Access to safe and secure housing is a basic human right. More than 105,000 people are defined as homeless throughout the nation. Homelessness is not a choice but is, in fact, one of the harshest manifestations of disadvantage and a genuine marker of social exclusion. I acknowledge the work done by Homelessness Australia in supporting vulnerable people not just in WA but also across the country. In Western Australia, nearly 10,000 people are homeless at this moment. Domestic violence is the most prevalent reason for the homelessness in WA, followed by financial hardship.

It is established that, more broadly, domestic and family violence is one of the top five pathways to homelessness, alongside other indicators which include mental health and youth. In relation to the government's commitment to reducing the scourge of domestic and family violence, I want to make it very clear that, contrary to the member for Richmond's assertion, there have been no cuts whatsoever in funding to services to assist vulnerable Australians. To suggest that is the case is totally deceptive and misleading. I will put on the record here that the government has in fact not cut funding to family violence prevention legal services or to frontline family law services and that there have been no cuts to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. In fact, my colleague Minister Scott Morrison has announced that we are providing $230 million to extend the NPAH for two years to 30 June 2017, with a specific focus on women and children affected by domestic violence. This includes projects that support women to remain safe in their homes. This is after Labor failed to make any plan for the future funding of homelessness services, with no allocation for continued funding of the NPAH after 30 June 2014. The accusation that government has cut funding to domestic violence services is totally false.

I will also take this opportunity to point out that it was the coalition who acted, after coming into government, to restore $115 million in funding for the homelessness partnership for that current year. The commitment, as I have indicated, has been extended for a further two years. In March, the government announced a $30 million campaign to further raise awareness of this scourge on our community through jointly funded programs between the Commonwealth and states. Last month, the Prime Minister announced an advisory panel to reduce violence against women which will report by the end of the year on a number of criteria.

What is important are the underlying issues that impact on families. In my own electorate, in working with Rotary and another number of other organisations and also working with the knights of St John's Order, there is a focus on homeless people whose circumstances have arisen through a number of factors and reasons, and in the process we as a society need to reach out. When we argue over funding and when we argue over differences in political stances or political positioning, we often forget to take a position that is humanitarian in the way that we re-engage people back into pathways. Mental illness is a particular challenge for us in terms of how we consider those who are homeless and experience mental illness, those who are in transition from prisons and those whose family circumstances have changed—including couch surfing.

In a sense, I take issue with the member for Richmond's comments because what we should be focusing on is the root causes and looking at how we change those. It is through that process that we can start to seriously think about how we provide those pathways that will better re-engage people into those things that they once aspired to do. Every human being has in their aspiration a pathway that as a child and in moving forward they want to take. The sad part is, the reality is, that we do end up with those whose journeys, choices and decisions lead them to a state of homelessness, including through the influence of drugs.

In my own electorate there are a number of organisations who provide incredible services and there are agencies working to assist people facing hardships. I thank them for their efforts in working with young people and with adults who already feel potentially lonely and desperate and may be on the verge of disengaging with family, friends and the community. In those instances, those programs provide a bridge that gives them comfort, gives them some certainty and gives them the opportunity to be part of the community in which they live.

Debate adjourned.

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