Page 1282 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2016
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commonwealth legislation is not consistent with the way we work with our tenants here in the ACT.
Finally, I was pleased that ministers also continued an ongoing discussion around the affordable housing challenge. National work on affordable housing through the commonwealth-led affordable housing working group is continuing, and the ACT has made a formal submission, as we undertook to do in February.
With a number of recent research and policy papers pointing to the challenges of housing affordability, it is clear on a national level that we need a substantial intervention from the commonwealth government, and I look forward to updating the Assembly on further developments as the national policy development process continues.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Burch.
MS BURCH: Minister, what does the unanimous call for greater funding certainty show about the pressures facing front-line housing and homelessness services?
MS BERRY: What this shows is that ministers with responsibility for these issues at the local level, regardless of their political party, understand the key importance of maintaining them. We have debated ROGS here at length, which shows that no other government invests in responding to homelessness at the same level as the ACT. Other jurisdictions typically face high levels of rough sleeping, longer waiting lists and lower levels of public housing stock.
In the context of far-reaching commonwealth cuts in health and education, which the Chief Minister spoke about again earlier this week, nobody wants to lose yet more funding through the housing portfolio. As both the Minister for Women and the minister for housing, I am also very conscious of the need for a sustainable funding response to the growing demand for front-line services for people experiencing domestic and family violence.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have found that an estimated 34 per cent of specialist homelessness services clients received assistance as a result of experiencing domestic and family violence in Australia. This issue was given added urgency by the release of the report from the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence which made a specific call on the need for the renewal of NPAH. It is clear that front-line housing and homelessness services are facing increased pressure as more women and children and families are seeking assistance.
It is important that appropriate services are available to respond to the increased national awareness of the issue of domestic and family violence. With the current national partnership agreement on homelessness scheduled to expire on 30 June 2017, state and territory governments and local service providers need to know as soon as possible what funding will be available beyond that date.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Hinder.
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