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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-25 Daily Xml
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Catherine House

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding human services. How many women have moved from hospital into Catherine House in the past five years, and where exactly will these women go when the minister's funding cuts come into effect and Catherine House can no longer provide crisis accommodation in a few weeks' time?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her question. I think there are a number of erroneous assumptions in her question, so I will respond to a range of issues and correct the record. I don't think that we keep information about any direct referrals from the hospital sector to Catherine House, but I will double-check that to see whether we hold that information.

As I have said in this place before, and as I have said in the public domain on radio, the South Australian government is not cutting homelessness services. There is actually an increase in funding to the sector in South Australia in this financial year compared to the previous financial year. We had a process where we sought five alliances to cover South Australia, those being northern country, southern country, northern Adelaide, southern Adelaide (including the city) and a specialist domestic and family violence service which was to operate statewide.

For four of those we received one tender, and that was of all of the existing providers, except for one particular service in the Riverland which chose not to participate. But in all instances, apart from the city and the southern area, there was one submission of all of the existing service providers. So there will continue to be the Women's Safety Services and a range of their partner alliances that will continue to operate crisis accommodation. I think it's quite disturbing if the Australian Labor Party is going to peddle that there aren't crisis beds. We actually have increased the number of crisis beds in South Australia and those services remain.

The one contested area was the Adelaide and southern area. The existing services decided to break into two separate tenders. As soon as that happened, that meant there were going to be winners and losers. That is the reality of any competitive tender process ever since governments have been tendering for services in the sector. There is nothing new about how this works.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: So you are happy to dump Catherine House.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: What we have done, as I have stated before—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: So you are happy to dump Catherine House.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: That's your choice. That's your government's choice.

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. E.S. Bourke interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: And the Hon. Ms Bourke!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will continue.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: What we required of the tenderers in this process was to display a number of things, which I can read out for honourable members again. I did that a couple of weeks ago and am quite happy to run through all of that again.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Callous indifference.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter! Continue, minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: We required all of the alliance bidders to demonstrate that the existing services in that area would continue to be provided for, so there is a range of services—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: Where will women's crisis beds be?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: That's what you haven't told us: where will they be?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Mr President, the honourable Deputy Leader of the Opposition just demonstrates that she hasn't even listened to a thing I have said, because we have a statewide domestic violence service, which has managed to come together—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —to collaborate, as they have done. I have congratulated them before, where the range of DV services in the metro area in particular—eastern, western, southern and northern—are now under the same umbrella of Women's Safety Services. They have been operating for some time, so to try to suggest that there won't be DV crisis beds is erroneous and misleading.

The Hon. C.M. Scriven: Where will they be in the city?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The alliances were required to demonstrate that the existing number of crisis services—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter will be silent.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Callous indifference.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —would continue, and they have done so. We had a rigorous process that those organisations went through. Those decisions have been made, and my plea to any of the providers who were in the unsuccessful tender is to continue to talk to the successful alliance.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, continue, and conclude your answer in due course.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wortley is not helping.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The successful tenderers have reached out to all of those organisations. Those organisations, I would have thought it would be in their best interests to talk to the successful alliance to see how they may fit into that. I understand that that has been taking place. I don't think it's particularly useful for these issues to be politicised by the Australian Labor Party.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: And I am confident that—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I am very confident that into the future we will see a much better system, which is going to improve homelessness services for South Australians, and the sorts of experiences—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —that people with lived experience told us they were going through—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —where they cycled through services and couldn't actually get a service, will cease.

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