Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Throsby, Jennie George, for bringing this motion before the House. I concur with the last speaker, the member for Moncrieff, that some of the mental health issues that he spoke of lead to homelessness and certainly need to be addressed. Of course, he just went down the same track that this government always does of blaming the state governments. It is a constant rise from that side of the House: always blame the state governments.

Homelessness may not appear to affect the largest percentage of the population, but hidden homelessness could double the figures that the member for Throsby stated. Those she did mention represent some of the neediest in our community. Homelessness is not having a roof over your head, but it means much more than that. Anglicare’s submission to the inquiry, which called for more funds, defines homelessness as:

• the lack of access to an adequate material standard of living (in terms of food, shelter, clothing and health) resulting primarily, but not only, from inadequate income; and
• the lack of opportunity to participate fully in society (for example through employment, education, recreation and social relationships).

The submission further cited:

“Adequacy” is defined in relation to community standards and may change over time, as do standards of living for the community as a whole.

Without somewhere to sleep and put one’s belongings, there is little hope of seeking employment, receiving training or even having an address to have one’s Centrelink payments sent to. It means you cannot use a bank; it means getting to a doctor is harder as many doctors have full books and do not take casuals. Without funds, clean clothes are difficult to find and, of course, the list goes on. A homeless person has little option but to live on cash handouts, use soup kitchens or eat takeaway foods and they have little chance to clean themselves and their clothes. Partial homelessness has the same difficulties. In fact, a report today about interest rates and the cost of housing in Australia shows that many families are defaulting on their mortgage payments and may well be on the homeless list too very soon.

The SAAP funded services have a role to play in helping people onto the first step back into society. Supported accommodation assistance means just that—helping people to put together the necessary tools to be able to find shelter. I believe that the whole way we approach housing has been inadequate, especially since the federal government has abandoned public housing. The rental sector has become so small and so expensive that even people who are quite well off cannot find suitable rental accommodation and some of what is available can be highly unsuitable for the individuals being housed.

Even as an old age pensioner, there are problems. If you have a house that is too big but are living on an age pension, you are caught in a bind. If you sell it and go into an aged persons’ home, the home takes a large percentage of the house’s value as an entry fee, and then your pension barely covers the ‘rent’. The super you have been saving to pass onto your children has suddenly disappeared. You can give a little away but no more than $30,000 in total, so it becomes a headache to try and work out what to do at the end of your life. There is no real option to allow another pensioner without housing to share with you because then they put up the charges. Both the owner and the tenant are penalised.

So, whether you are young, a single mother, homeless through illness, from a divided family at any age or elderly, housing becomes a fundamental survival problem. SAAP therefore provides a vitally important link between all those thousands of people who need help with housing at a particularly difficult time of their lives and all levels of government. Will the federal government pick up this role if they abandon SAAP? It is unlikely, and in these current times when the national government is moving away from social intervention, it looks like we are another step closer to being the 51st state of the USA. (Time expired)

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