Motions

National Homelessness Week

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:51): I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises National Homelessness Week being held from 4 to 10 August;

2. Notes that National Homelessness Week is an annual week coordinated by Homelessness Australia to raise awareness of people experiencing homelessness, the issues they face and the action needed to achieve solutions; and

3. Acknowledges and thanks all service providers working in our community to support people sleeping rough and to end homelessness.

I rise today to speak on the importance of National Homelessness Week, the issues facing people in our community living and experiencing homelessness and to pay my respects and thanks to all those working hard to make life a little better for people experiencing homelessness.

National Homelessness Week is an annual event. It runs from 4 to 10 August and this year's theme is 'Housing ends homelessness'. Secure accommodation and having a safe home to live in, where you are free from domestic violence and the threat of physical violence that can come from living rough on the streets, as well as the poor health outcomes that can come with it, are real everyday circumstances that confront homeless people living in our community.

On a broad level in South Australia, the rate of homelessness for every 10,000 people is 37.1, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. If this does not immediately shock us, a short scratch at the surface starts to provide the urgency of the problem. Recent figures reveal that every night in South Australia, around 6,000 people are homeless or sleep rough. Almost one in five homeless people in our state are between the ages of 25 and 34, and 15 per cent of homeless people in South Australia are from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

Earlier this year, I visited the Hutt St Centre and toured the facilities provided there, which are helping people experiencing homelessness, addressing the issues they face and seeking to achieve enduring solutions. The numbers provided to me by the Hutt St Centre should concern us all. Each year, the Hutt St Centre serves around 50,000 meals and offers social work and support to nearly 2,000 people. I have spoken to those who work there, those who run the programs and some people who use those services. It goes without saying that not just during Homelessness Week but every week the centre deserves all the commendation and help we can provide but, in doing so, we must acknowledge that it is simply not enough to just provide crisis care.

While it is truly great that there are centres like the Hutt St Centre and indeed many others providing care for those who are homeless, the statistics of homelessness in South Australia are simply not improving. It is well past time that we start looking to the causes and not just the effects of homelessness and poverty. We have to do more than simply apply bandages. We have to start looking to long-term solutions.

What causes poverty and homelessness? That is an excellent question, albeit it might seem like an obvious one and one that the theme of homelessness, this week, seeks to make an issue of. Forty-five per cent of households in poverty in this state are renters. In the 10 years since 2006, more than one new family was forced into homelessness every single week. Between 2003 and 2015 the lowest 20 per cent of income earners in Australia saw their income actually drop by 9 per cent.

Recent research from SACOSS reveals that almost 132,000 people, including over 22,000 children, live below the poverty line in South Australia. If these figures are not bad enough, those in regional South Australia are much more vulnerable, with those who live there being statistically twice as likely to be in poverty as those in metropolitan Adelaide.

The fact is that in all aspects of government, policy and society, inside and outside of Homelessness Week, we need a proactive focus on speaking to those in poverty—those who are in and those who are at risk of being so. We need a focus on what they earn, where they live and their costs of living. In the land of the fair go it is worth asking: what went wrong? And: should we give it another go? I think we should.

The statistics say that working Australians and indeed South Australians are more productive now than we have ever been, so where is that wealth? Working families in our state are delivering wealth on an unprecedented level, and at the same time the workplace and indeed the world has never changed faster or been influenced by things more beyond our everyday control. But are we sharing the results of this productivity fairly? Are we helping those who are attacked by the constantly changing world? I do not believe we are, or at the least I have to say it is obvious that we should be doing more.

If you work hard you should receive a fair reward, but I actually see it as a problem for our economy, not a success, that nationally the highest 1 per cent of the population in Australia earns as much in a fortnight as the lowest 5 per cent receives in a year—when the top 1 per cent earn more than those on a pension or Newstart are going to receive as a whole in the nation.

It should not be controversial at all to say that those who work hard deserve better pay and fairer conditions because they want to work hard or they do work hard or because they have worked hard all their working lives, and for those same reasons it should not be controversial to say that we should raise the rate of unemployment benefits like Newstart. Raising the rate of Newstart benefit, while not the solution to poverty or the solution to homelessness alone, would have an impact on poverty and homelessness. We need to raise the rate.

Indeed, it has been made clear that should we raise the rate of Newstart by an amount of $75 a week, it would lead to a boost in consumer spending and create more than 10,000 jobs nationally. The longer we dither and ponder what to do about homelessness and poverty, the worse it shall become.

Since 2011, the number of people experiencing homelessness nationally has increased by more than 12 per cent. In the 10 years after 2006, more than one new family in South Australia was homeless every single week. We can all do our part to raise awareness and support those in our community experiencing homelessness, but the simple fact is we have to do more. We have to do more nationally, we have to raise the rate and we have to raise the awareness of what homelessness and poverty is doing in our community.

In this regard, Homelessness Australia, in conjunction with the Hutt St Centre, is hosting the Walk a Mile in my Boots event. It encourages everyone to step up and step out to show support for people experiencing homelessness while helping raise much-needed funds for the programs run by the Hutt St Centre and for all the programs that support the homeless in South Australia. I encourage everyone to attend; it is literally the least we can do.

More needs to be done to support the complex needs of people experiencing homelessness in our community. I take the opportunity again here to thank the hard work of organisations like the Hutt St Centre, Homelessness Australia and many other non-government organisations working tirelessly for the less fortunate in our community. This national Homelessness Week I encourage you all to do your part to support those who need our help; it has never been more important. Thank you. I commend the motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins.