Page 1281 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2016
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MADAM SPEAKER: I did wait for a long time and I have given Ms Burch the call.
Mr Smyth: I do apologise.
MS BURCH: My question is to the Minister for Housing, Community Services and Social Inclusion: what are the outcomes of the national meeting of housing and homelessness ministers held last week?
MS BERRY: I thank Ms Burch for her question. I am happy to report back to the Assembly on this meeting, which was held in Brisbane last week. Ministers from all states and territories and the commonwealth met in parallel with COAG to discuss some of the key issues facing our jurisdictions. Across the country and across political divides, housing and homelessness ministers face many shared challenges. As a result, we were able to agree to a broad set of recommendations covering homelessness policy and funding, housing affordability and the need for accessible, affordable and social housing alongside the rollout of the national disability insurance scheme.
It was particularly pleasing to achieve unanimous agreement on a call for greater funding certainty for housing and homelessness services. This occurred in response to a paper that was jointly authored by the ACT and South Australia. The current national partnership agreement on homelessness—the NPAH—expires on 30 June 2017, and there is no current commitment to future funding arrangements beyond this date.
The NPAH provides important additional funds for ACT homelessness services, including services for young people and for people experiencing domestic and family violence. Equally, the NPAH and the national partnership funding more generally reflect what needs to be a shared commitment in tackling homelessness across the country.
Both levels of government have a role to play and many shared interests in helping people to get into a stable home. To that end, ministers agreed to commission a report on future policy reforms and funding options for homelessness beyond July 2017 with specific consideration of a five-year funding agreement.
Ministers also discussed the anticipated demand for accessible and affordable social housing which will emerge as we transition to the national disability insurance scheme. This is an important issue for the ACT, and all ministers agreed to work collaboratively with our ministerial colleagues and the National Disability Insurance Agency to develop accurate information and projections of likely future demand.
One item which did not achieve consensus, Madam Speaker, was a proposed automatic rent deduction scheme proposed by the New South Wales government for universal application to public and community housing tenants. Both the ACT and Victoria, as jurisdictions with human rights legislation, took the view that such a scheme was unlikely to be consistent with our human rights obligations. But, more broadly, our view is that, while national cooperation to support housing tenants around rent payments is welcome, a universal scheme mandated through the
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