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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-31 Daily Xml
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Code Blue Emergency Code

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. How is the Malinauskas Labor government supporting rough sleepers who face severe hardship from extreme weather?

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (15:02): Thank you very much to the member for Adelaide for that terrific question. She is a fantastic advocate for people who are rough sleeping and those who are helping people who are rough sleeping.

Last week, the weather forecast predicted some really rough weather to happen across the course of Sunday through to Wednesday. That weather certainly arrived with a vengeance. There was terrible rain, it was quite cool and the winds came at the same time. While the news was telling us to secure our backyards, the Malinauskas Labor team was happily out telling people who were sleeping rough that there would be a Code Blue over the weekend. The Labor Party started the Code Blue system in 2016, along with Code Red, under that minister at the time, Minister Zoe Bettison, in fact.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. N.F. COOK: I am afraid the member for Chaffey is misunderstanding history, which is quite normal. I was very pleased on Friday when, well in advance of the weather coming in, this was announced so it gave services plenty of time to get extra staff, volunteers and supplies on board and also to get the word out to people who were on the street that there would be shelter available.

The Code Blue response does include a range of options. We have many across regional areas and in the CBD that provide overnight accommodation, including WestCare, the Baptist Church at Millers Court, in the western part of the CBD. Also, we have the Hutt St Centre and SYC's Foundry that offer extended hours so that people can pop in during the day to get extra help and support and also get assistance with ongoing referrals for accommodation and support to achieve housing outcomes.

Across the weekend, I attended the WestCare Centre, who were providing an excellent service on Sunday night and 18 people slept there. Nearly 50 people went in to receive a hot meal and some further supplies to help them stay safe. Then last night, WestCare provided support to another 52 people, with 25 or thereabouts staying last night. Dozens of other people popped into Hutt St and to SYC to get help.

Yesterday morning, at 6.30 I headed to the outreach service to join them, to go out into the Parklands, into stairwells, shopfront recesses and a whole range of places across the city to meet with people, talk with people that this outreach service was now able to identify by name, know their history and talk about the journey that they were working with them on trying to secure some ongoing permanent housing, which for many is a very difficult journey to achieve.

I note the member for Adelaide and our Premier are both very ardent supporters of the process to achieve zero homelessness across our state. As part of that, as members would be aware, we have started with that $6 million extra funding going into homelessness services. They will be able to continue this great work moving forward.

I have made no secret of my genuine distress when the transition occurred to the new Alliance model, and that was way too fast. It didn't provide time for people to hand over the cases to the new service that were already under their care. This has meant a delay, but I am pleased to say we now finally have the outreach services that these people need. Thank you to everyone for doing such a great job this weekend.

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