Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

ROST () (): Members in this place will likely be familiar with my background, working in the homelessness sector as CEO of Catherine House, a women's homelessness service in Adelaide, and as CEO of Vinnies SA, including homelessness services for men and a domestic violence refuge for women and their children escaping domestic violence. I was also co-chair of the Adelaide Zero Project, which brought together all of the homelessness and housing services in the Adelaide CBD to work together to end rough sleeping. So I know a little bit about the homelessness and housing market, and I know a little bit about what works to resolve homelessness.

It should surprise no-one that the answer to homelessness is more housing—specifically, social and affordable housing. It should also surprise no-one that the best way to reduce the homelessness rate is to make sure that, when you are putting people into housing, you aren't pushing others into homelessness. We have a chronic and severe shortage of housing in this country. We have a supply problem. We also have an affordability problem, but we have a supply problem, and of course these two things are not unrelated. It isn't made any better by Airbnbs; in fact, in some areas this vacancy rate has caused significant shortage in the permanent rental market. But overall we have a shortage of housing stock that we need to address.

It is well known in this place that the fastest-growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness are women over the age of 55. Well, we used to say over 55; I think we say over 45 now. And I know this is well known because I hear people from all sides talking about it. No-one can pretend that they don't know how acute this is out there.

The Housing Australia Future Fund, which these bills will establish, will include $100 million for victims-survivors of family and domestic violence and those at risk. This includes older women, who, by the time they leave, often have no money, no superannuation, no resources and no place to go. In Australia, a third of people who seek assistance for homelessness cite family violence as their main reason for needing help from DV and homelessness services like those I used to run. At Catherine House, which is a homelessness service, not a DV-specific service, it was actually more like 50 per cent.

According to a report from feminist trailblazer and researcher Dr Anne Summers titled The choice: violence or poverty, on average, 9,000 survivors of domestic violence become homeless every year. Alarmingly, 7,700 survivors return to their abuser each year. On average, it takes a woman seven goes to leave. From my experience, the threat or reality of financial destitution and homelessness is a key driving force behind this shocking statistic. And this is on top of the many thousands we don't know about, who haven't left in the first place, often because they don't have the financial resources to escape safely, without ending up on the streets. That's just one reason why this bill is so important. This bill specifically carves out $100 million to build homes for victims-survivors of family and domestic violence and those at risk.

And, for all the rhetoric I hear about caring about women escaping domestic violence and caring about older women experiencing homelessness and older women in poverty, when the crunch comes and there's a bill before us to improve the lot of these very women they profess to care about, those opposite and the Greens tell us they will vote against it.

Another area I hear a lot about from those opposite is how much they care about veterans—those who have served our country and need our support, back in the community. We know that veterans are another cohort who have a higher risk of homelessness. Adelaide Zero Project have a specific focus on veteran homelessness. I have a number of fantastic organisations in Boothby that assist veterans experiencing a range of issues, including the Veteran Wellbeing Centre in Daw Park, which is a number of state funded and not-for-profit agencies providing a one-stop shop; the William Kibby VC Veterans Shed, where coordinator Barry Heffernan is unbelievably committed to helping veterans resolve whatever issues they might be having; and of course the RSLs.

Today I will mention the Andrew Russell Veteran Living centre, part of RSL Care SA, run by Nathan Klinge. This not-for-profit centre provides live-in emergency accommodation for veterans experiencing homelessness and helps them resolve the issues that brought them into homelessness and then find a housing outcome. The Andrew Russell Veteran Living Centre just achieved a milestone that is both heartwarming and shocking: 20,000 nights of emergency accommodation to veterans in South Australia. They do an amazing job, but it's really sad that this sort of service is needed to that extent. Of course, key to them being able to do their job is getting housing outcomes for the veterans who come to them; finding permanent housing outcomes for veterans so that, after one person has left, the next homeless veteran can come through their doors and find a safe place to sleep.

Organisations like this have long been calling for much greater investment in social and affordable housing. The Housing Australia Future Fund Bill carves out $30 million of the fund to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. Why would you vote against it? We need more social and affordable housing as a matter of priority.

Taken together, these bills are first step in implementing our election commitment to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund. This is the most significant investment in new social and affordable housing in a generation. It's needed. We have a housing supply problem, particularly at the bottom of the market, the social and affordable market. Everyone in this place can surely agree that action is needed to combat the housing pressures that too many Australians face after 10 years of dithering, 10 years of delay. I know it. I was one of those lobbying a deaf and uncaring government over that decade. Finally we are taking action. It's action designed for the long term, to have a generational impact.

The Albanese government understands safe and affordable understand safe and affordable housing is central to the security and dignity of all Australians. Far too many Australians are being hit by growing rents. Far too many Australians are struggling to buy a home. Sadly, far too many Australians are facing or experiencing homelessness. That's why we have an ambitious housing reform agenda to ensure more Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home. The housing legislation package is a comprehensive suite of measures to get more social, affordable homes on the ground. It enables the most significant Australian government investment in housing in a generation.

I would ask those opposite and those on the crossbench: if you care about the community, about those experiencing homelessness or housing stress, about women escaping domestic violence, about veterans who have served our country, about remote Aboriginal communities, about frontline workers, then vote for the bill. Vote for this bill that will increase supply at the bottom of the market for those groups who most need it. If you support women escaping violence, vote for the bill. If you support veterans experiencing homelessness, vote for the bill. If you support frontline workers, vote for the bill. If you support remote Aboriginal communities, vote for the bill. By your actions you shall be known. Now is not the time to play political pointscoring with people's safety, their futures and their lives. Now is not the time to be negative for negative's sake. Now is not the time to throw away good in the pursuit of an unachievable perfect or to make a political point. People need housing. We have a supply problem. We have an affordability problem. This is the start of addressing that problem. I commend the bills to the House.

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