Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to support parts of the motion that have been put forward by the member for Throsby, in particular to acknowledge the true problems that our nation faces with respect to homelessness and the need to deal with homelessness. There are some aspects of this motion, though, that I believe may be more party political than bipartisan. Having said that, in the short time I have available I would like to put on the record some of my observations about the importance of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program as well as observations from actually working in street outreach.

A number of years ago, before I came into this place, I had the opportunity to work with Rosies Street Outreach in Brisbane and to deal directly, on Friday and Saturday nights, with some of the most destitute people in Australian society. My wife and I would spend several hours on Friday nights in the Brisbane mall handing out cups of coffee and biscuits and basically just enjoying friendship with those who were living on the streets at the time. Having spent about a year doing that, the overarching observations that I would make from my experience are that there are a large number of people whom homelessness is thrust upon. There are also, though, a number who choose to be homeless, and that choice is perhaps motivated in many respects by a form of psychiatric disability. In fact, that may be the cause of all of it; I am not certain. It is also clear that there are a number of services available that reach out to people who are destitute and homeless which are not utilised. But there can also be no doubt that there are insufficient services to meet the demand were all these people to reach out for assistance at the same time.

Having said all of that, I do believe that the Howard government, in collaboration with state governments around the country, have made a very definite impact on addressing homelessness in the Australian community. A real solution to this problem is multifaceted. It is simply not the case that, if we were to pour more money into the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, that would reconcile the problem. It certainly would not. In addition to that, there needs to be funding that goes into psychiatric care to ensure that, where possible, we prevent people moving into the streets in the first place. It requires a holistic approach and it certainly is my belief that through, for example, the SAAP as well as Commonwealth-state housing agreements and other like programs we will take very measurable steps to minimise the risk of Australians becoming homeless and improve the lot of those who do become homeless so that they can move back off the streets.

This problem is particularly pronounced on the Gold Coast. On the Gold Coast we have a very sorry situation, and I have been exceptionally critical of the state government’s nonperformance in this area in the past. The fact is that in a city of some 550,000 people we have an appalling situation where, over the last 17 years, we have seen very little investment by the state government. The consequence is that on the Gold Coast today there are approximately 15 beds available for a population of 550,000 for crisis and emergency accommodation. It is simply not enough.

I have taken the time to look at exactly what the Commonwealth is doing. Under the SAAP, the Commonwealth is providing a total of $145 million over five years in the joint Commonwealth and Queensland government SAAP. This year, 2006-07, we are providing $39.3 million and we hope that by the end of this, the fifth iteration of the SAAP, the Queensland government will match the Commonwealth’s contribution dollar for dollar, because at this point they do not. That is part of the reason why in Queensland we see that some services are not at an appropriate level. Under the Commonwealth-state housing agreement, the Commonwealth is providing some $940 million, with the Queensland government contributing some $344 million for the same period—again, a significant contribution from the Commonwealth.

From my perspective, we certainly should measure the money that is going towards the program, but we also need to look at other steps being taken, as I said, such as Medicare rebates for psychiatric counselling, and make sure that we are servicing these people who are often among the most destitute of all Australians.

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