Page 641 - Week 02 - Thursday, 18 February 2016
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The current national partnership agreement on homelessness continues to meet broad-ranging objectives of providing support to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. In addition the new agreement provides assurance that 25 per cent of matched funding each year is allocated across three priority areas: (1) support services for women and children experiencing domestic and family violence; (2) support services for youth between the ages of 12 and 24 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness; and (3) support services for these children to maintain contact with the education system. Notwithstanding this, the Auditor-General’s report offers valuable insights into whether the national partnership agreement on homelessness programs is making a difference for people experiencing homelessness.
The standing committee produced report 16, Review of Auditor-General’s Report No. 4 of 2013: National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on 29 October 2015. Five community submissions were made to the inquiry and four people attended public hearings. The ACT government welcomes the standing committee’s report and agrees to all 10 of its recommendations. Of the 10 recommendations, seven have already been implemented, one is well advanced and two will be actioned by the end of 2015-16.
Recommendations 1 to 7 relate to measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of the national partnership agreement on homelessness. Through our community sector reform work, a new outcomes reporting framework and recent consultations around the framework for future homelessness service delivery, the government is making active progress in all of these areas.
Recommendations 8 and 9 focus on the correlation between homelessness, housing affordability and land release. In particular, the committee recognised that the nature of these issues spans all levels of government and that a national approach should be pursued. Again the government agrees, and we are pursuing this agenda both through COAG and through meetings of state and territory housing ministers. Within these forums a range of options to address housing affordability are being reviewed which focus on increasing supply and providing greater access to affordable housing and social housing.
Recommendation 10 is that the government advise the Legislative Assembly of progress towards the headline and interim goals of the commonwealth government white paper “The road home: a national approach to reducing homelessness”.
As I noted earlier, the new priority areas of the 2015-17 national partnership agreement on homelessness reflect the community’s concerns regarding women and children experiencing domestic violence, and youth homelessness, and will assist in strengthening our response to the people in our community.
I thank everyone in the homelessness service sector who work so hard to provide services which help to give everyone an equal chance at having a stable and secure home, and therefore a safe and happy life.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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