Homelessness

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:14): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding homelessness. Given reported comments from the minister's chief executive that a street kitchen was 'fostering dependence among a section of the Aboriginal community', is the minister seriously suggesting that people don't depend on food to survive? What service gaps exist under the minister's leadership that vulnerable people can't even eat?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:14): I think I answered a very similar question to that yesterday. I am happy to repeat myself for the benefit of members of the Labor Party. We want the services that we are seeking to provide to people to be strength based. I think that particularly in the homelessness space there can be some community attitudes. If we are talking about people with disability, we call it 'ableness'. I am not quite sure what we would call it in this space, but it's certainly a patronising attitude towards people that assumes that they don't have capacity and they need other people to do everything for them.

What we have been doing through the cross-government group is try to identify as many of the cohorts as possible, how to reach those people and the most culturally appropriate services. As I also said yesterday, in the homelessness space we certainly do know that the best response for people is the housing first approach, in which we get people a roof over their head with the wraparound supports and get them back into leading independent lives, back to what it was that they were aspiring to themselves. I think those things need to be borne in mind as they are a backdrop to all the discussions about these matters.