Page 3154 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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The Greens were pleased to see in this budget an expansion of the public housing energy efficiency program, which is a parliamentary agreement item. Around 75 per cent of the people who appear before ACAT do so because they cannot afford their energy bills and they come from public housing. This is not only because they have low incomes but also because their houses can be incredibly hot in summer and cold in winter and they cannot effectively achieve comfortable living conditions. Making improvements to public housing energy efficiency makes good economic and environmental sense. So far, the government has made improvements to or is satisfied with about one-third of public housing stock with another two-thirds to proceed.
The Greens are concerned that the number of people who are homeless in the ACT is high. In 2006 the national census showed Canberra had higher rates of homelessness than Melbourne and Sydney. In a population as affluent as ours, this is something all members here should find alarming. The Greens have investigated this issue through targets the ACT government has set to report on in response to the 2008 COAG agreement on homelessness. Most of the targets to be achieved are based on outcome measures, but, unfortunately, the government’s last report on the COAG agreement has only reported in most cases on output measures. That does not tell us if we are getting close to those targets for reduced homelessness or not, and I am concerned that this may not be the case.
The minister has referred several times to the higher than expected demand for assistance through the central homelessness phone line. Obviously, the setting up of that phone line has meant that we are starting to see these figures probably for the first time in some instances. I acknowledge that the agency running the home line are doing an excellent job in providing that service. I do not think anyone argues that they are not providing an excellent service. I encourage the minister to make public the figures coming through that phone line so we can have a better understanding of the current situation and what more is needed.
Lastly, I would like to make the point that I do not think we received adequate time for questioning in the estimates process on the Housing ACT line item. Last year, for example, we did not get to ask any questions about homelessness which is obviously a major problem in the ACT. Because we have an affluent population, a lot of people do not think we have a homelessness problem here, but we do. It is important that in the estimates process we have adequate time to ask questions about that. This year we only briefly ran through a few issues in relation to homelessness. This is an area which warrants far greater scrutiny and attention, and I request that, in future years, we have more time allocated to this very important portfolio area in the estimates process.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (1.23 am): I again rise to congratulate the government on the funding in this budget for the common ground feasibility study. This proposal—which I am sure Ms Bresnan will be delighted to hear—has as its aim the reduction of homelessness in Canberra, supporting the federal government’s aim to halve homelessness by 2020. The underlying ethos of this proposal is that all people are valued, regardless of their circumstances.
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