Page 1502 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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Madam Speaker, last month when I met in Brisbane with housing ministers from across the country to talk about homelessness and how it was being dealt with, it was clear from every single housing minister in every state and territory that certainty around the NPAH had universal and bipartisan support because of the importance of that funding to all of those support services that make a real difference across the country. It was agreed that certainty and an increase in funding are needed to be able to continue to provide extra support.
The ACT has been able to provide a lot of different supports for young people through: the friendly landlord service with Barnardos; the youth identified accommodation support program, another Barnardos program which assists young people to sustain long-term stable accommodation arrangements with their support families; the young parents program, a program delivered by St Vincent de Paul; the housing support service delivered by CatholicCare, which provides outreach to support young people; the take hold program delivered by the Ted Noffs Foundation, which provides life skills, training and mentoring to young people; the Family Tree House, which provides a conflict resolutions service; the our place program, which I have mentioned previously and which provides transitional accommodation to young people enrolled in education or attending a traineeship apprenticeship under a foyer-like model; and the Youth Emergency Accommodation Network—YEAN—which I was able to visit along with Senator Katy Gallagher to talk about how that program supports young people who are at risk of homelessness or are experiencing homelessness.
It is concerning how the federal budget announced yesterday will affect young people in Canberra and across the country, particularly around their employment. I cannot imagine how a young person will be able to survive on a pay of $4 an hour along with cuts to the youth allowance and Newstart, which would have provided some of these young people with at least the chance to have a crack at getting some employment for themselves. Under the scheme the federal government has introduced, they will be required to work for $4 an hour. That unfortunately leaves them open to unscrupulous employers who might take advantage of the fact that they can pay someone a lesser amount of money than they would normally be legally entitled to.
I am very happy to speak to this motion and to Ms Burch’s amendment. I support the calls for the ACT government to condemn the increased efficiency dividends that have been imposed on the Australian public service, to continue to support the ACT economy in light of the impact caused by the ongoing cuts to the Australian public service, and to condemn some of the announcements that will affect youth employment and housing and homelessness services across the ACT and the country.
MR HINDER (Ginninderra) (3.18): I will talk to the amendment and close the debate, but before I do that, I thank you, Madam Speaker, and those members who have contributed to the debate on the motion today. In particular, I thank the Chief Minister for his contribution and for his leadership and strong economic stewardship of the territory. I also thank Minister Rattenbury for his contribution on the impact of federal Liberal cuts to the education system. Thanks also to my colleague Ms Burch
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