Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is aimed at increasing recognition and awareness of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

It is not acceptable in Australia, a relatively wealthy country, that so many Australians remain homeless.

A home is the foundation on which a person builds their life. Without stable homes, people struggle to live healthily, stay in training or education, and find and keep jobs.

This Labor government has made homelessness a national priority. Our white paper, The Road Home, outlines how we intend to reduce homelessness—through a program that will require sustained effort by governments, business and the broader community.

We have set clear targets—to halve the rate of homelessness by 2020, and to provide supported accommodation for all rough sleepers who need it.

These targets will be achieved through a significant boost in spending, new agreements with the states and territories, and an overhaul of the existing legislative framework.

Already, we have seen progress, including through early intervention to prevent homelessness.

The community based early intervention service, Reconnect, has helped more than 67,000 young people to get back with their families and into school or training.

The Household Organisation Management Expenses Advice Program has given advice and assistance to many families—struggling with rent and mortgage payments during times of personal or financial crisis—helping them to stay off the streets.

We have seen our Personal Helpers and Mentors program, or the PhaMS program, prevent people with mental illness from becoming homeless—by giving them support to build social networks, gain employment, and learn to manage their illness and live independently.

We have moved towards integrating mainstream and specialist homelessness services by improving the responses from 'first-to-know' agencies and providers—such as headspace, working with young people with mental health issues, and Job Services Australia—providing tailored assistance to homeless job seekers.

These are just some of the ongoing practical initiatives that will help break the cycle of homelessness for vulnerable people.

The homelessness legislative framework was the subject of a comprehensive inquiry during 2009 by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth. The committee's report, Housing the homeless, has been vital in shaping this bill introduced today.

With the exception of a legislative right to housing, which is outside current government policy and, in practice, would be significantly dependent on the actions of the states and territories (which are responsible for housing), the committee's recommendations have been incorporated into this bill to the best extent possible.

This bill complements a broader reform process to reduce homelessness, incorporating substantial co-investment with states and territories to expand and implement a range of practical measures to support, and improve outcomes for, Australians facing homelessness. The bill underpins the need to sustain this effort into the future.

The bill draws national attention to the experience of homelessness, and voices the aspiration that all Australians have access to appropriate, affordable, safe and sustainable housing. This is in line with the objective expressed within the National Affordable Housing Agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories, and local government.

The bill acknowledges the direct relationship between addressing homelessness and social inclusion. It sets out a range of service delivery principles to which the Commonwealth is committed, and the strategies we see as necessary to reduce homelessness.

The bill also confirms the Commonwealth's commitment to cooperation and consultation in reducing homelessness, and promotes the human rights of people facing homelessness.

This legislation that is introduced today has been strengthened through a two-month public exposure period in mid-2012—and we express our gratitude to those many people who lodged written submissions on that exposure draft.

All suggestions made have been carefully considered, and the bill has been refined as a result. In particular, the definition of homelessness has been improved in light of comments from a number of stakeholders.

We have now clarified that people staying in crisis accommodation (such as a refuge or shelter) cannot be ruled out of the definition through any concept of 'choice'—we know all too well that people do not choose homelessness by living in crisis accommodation.

The definition of 'homelessness' now also recognises that safety must be recognised as a vital element in a person's living circumstances. Some people may be homeless because they have no safe place to live, even if they do have a usual address. For example, a person who is living temporarily with friends or relatives and cannot return home safely because of domestic violence will now be recognised by the legislation as experiencing homelessness. This preserves an element of the previous legislative definition particularly valued by stakeholders.

Stakeholder feedback has also been reflected in the bill in important matters such as the range of factors recognised as contributing to homelessness, and in the Commonwealth's aspiration for all Australians to have access to appropriate, affordable, safe and sustainable housing.

This new legislation will replace the Supported Accommodation Assistance Act 1994, which set out important principles and guided the Commonwealth's response to homelessness in Australia for many years.

That act recognised people who are homeless as one of the most powerless and marginalised groups in society. It made clear the parliament's view that support should be provided in a way that respects people's dignity as individuals, enhances their self-esteem, is sensitive to their social and economic circumstances, and respects their cultural backgrounds and beliefs.

The new legislation preserves the best features of the 1994 act. The Homelessness Bill 2013 gives us the opportunity to retain in law the important statements about homelessness, the partnerships, effort and strategies that are needed to tackle it, and the treatment and support that vulnerable Australians deserve.

The 1994 act was primarily a vehicle for providing funding to states and territories to administer the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program—the SAAP. However, new arrangements were introduced in 2009 under the federal financial relations framework, superseding the funding mechanism under the 1994 act.

This current funding framework for Commonwealth, state and territory efforts to reduce homelessness—with funding provided through Commonwealth-state mechanisms such as the National Partnership on Homelessness and the National Affordable Housing Specific Purpose Payment—will continue. That funding framework is the vehicle for the practical steps Australia is taking in support of its international obligation to realise progressively the right to adequate housing.

This bill is therefore complementary to the comprehensive funding arrangements already in place, and is not a funding instrument in itself. The Gillard government continues to work with states and territories on the best possible funding outcomes under the existing framework and the substantial measures that flow from it.

Similarly, the bill is just one part of a bigger policy program of support to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The issue of service quality is being pursued by working with states and territories to develop a non-legislative Homelessness National Quality Framework. This framework is being developed with the benefit of consultations and workshop sessions with service providers and stakeholders and individual interviews with homeless people. The framework will be the primary strategy for the white paper goal of ensuring quality services.

The Australian government has committed around $5 billion in new funding since 2008 to provide support services and programs to help people who are homeless or at risk.

Under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, the Australian government, together with the states and territories, has committed $1.1 billion to provide new and better integrated accommodation and support services. The agreement is delivering over 180 new or expanded services across the country to tackle homelessness, as well as 600 homes under the A Place to Call Home initiative.

Increasingly, we are in a position to assess progress against the homelessness targets—using tools such as robust census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and information collected by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

These data will be supplemented by the first national longitudinal study of homelessness in Australia, Journeys Home, and research supported by our $11 million-investment on the Homelessness Research Agenda to help drive the development and implementation of evidence-based policy—looking at matters including the experiences and needs of particular vulnerable groups such as families, children and victims of domestic violence, the effectiveness of homelessness programs, and how to end rough sleeping in cities around the country.

The Australian government remains committed to improving outcomes for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Ensuring that people receive high-quality services and get every chance to move out of homelessness, or avoid it altogether, is key to the government's policy agenda in this area.

The welfare and safety of our fellow Australians matter a great deal. There can be no more worthy cause than doing all that we can to help reduce homelessness, and this bill is a clear statement of our commitment and values in this vital policy agenda. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.