Page 509 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021
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disadvantage. As I reflected last year, when we marked the 20-year anniversary of the task group’s work, a key change from now to then is the issue of homelessness. Rather than doing additional analysis, we need urgent action.
Given this, I was really pleased that I was able to announce several more initiatives addressing poverty in our community in the budget, including $300,000 to support the Early Morning Centre to provide a seven-day service through 2020-21 and 2021-22; expanding specialist homelessness services capacity by an extra $1.2 million over 2020-21 and 2021-22; $450,000 over 2020-21 and 2021-22 to increase emergency accommodation provided through OneLink, including through additional resourcing to increase the capacity of the specialist homelessness sector; and $1.6 million over four years for two staff in the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Affairs to facilitate an integrated approach to strengthen the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families across housing, child protection and other supports—an announcement of my colleague.
These funding priorities were developed through extensive consultation with the community services sector, working with people experiencing poverty and housing stress, and in response to the specialist sector’s ability to adapt and respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Over this term of government I intend to continue to be guided by the policymakers and the on-ground experts who have built extensive knowledge of the extent and nature of poverty in the ACT and the solutions needed to address it. That is why I stand here in the Assembly: to progress what we as a community have learnt in the decades since the Poverty Task Group. My priority is now implementation.
Since first working on those poverty reports over two decades ago, I have held many roles in the sector. I have seen the strength of peak bodies and policymakers to now consistently offer informed, nuanced recommendations to address poverty in the ACT. So I bring with me a commitment to listen to these solutions and not to burden the sector with repeated consultation and information gathering.
We have consulted on the causes of poverty and the priorities to address it in our community. I will work to ensure that the resources and the priorities that the ACT government puts in place will respond. I will also fiercely advocate for action in areas that sit in other realms.
As spoken about by the Chief Minister and Minister Davidson, we cannot ignore the impact of inadequate income support provided by the federal government to those who are unable to secure work. With the exception of the lifesaving COVID supplement during the last year, the real rate of JobSeeker has not changed since the completion of the Poverty Task Force two decades ago. This is something that has to change.
What I ask of this Assembly is to engage with the clear evidence base we have regarding poverty in the ACT and look at what we can do collectively to address poverty and make a positive difference to the lives of people in the Canberra community.
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