Category: Australian News

The Victorian Budget has slashed funding for a highly successful homelessness program which halved rough sleeping in Victoria, with Council to Homeless Persons warning it will leave the most vulnerable out in the cold, and ultimately end up costing the state more in the long run. 

Today’s Victorian Budget revealed funding to From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) program has been reduced by $43 million annually, 78% of its earlier budget which translates to 1,440 people missing out on support. 

From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) saves an estimated $13,100 public expenditure for each participant annually, by diverting people away from hospitalisation, acute mental healthcare, and incarceration.  

“The government has failed to seize the opportunity to consolidate the success of From Homelessness to a Home, which effectively halved Victoria’s rates of rough sleeping,” said Jenny Smith, CEO of Council to Homeless Persons. 

“Failing to support people out of rough sleeping only guarantees more pressure on other services, such as hospitals, psychiatric wards, and prisons. It’s not just an economic costs, there’s also a societal cost to not helping our most vulnerable.

“The cut to the majority of the funding means 1,440 people will miss out on life-changing support that provides stability for people with enormous complexity in their lives.

“From Homelessness to a Home showed when we have the political will, we can get a roof over people’s heads as well as the support they need to keep that home, quickly and effectively. This Budget puts the brakes on the significant momentum we saw in sharply reducing rough sleeping.”

During the pandemic, tens of thousands of Victorians without homes were provided with short term relief in hotels, and then supported into private rentals. As part of this, H2H was introduced to meet the ongoing needs of those who’d experienced long-term rough sleeping and had more complex needs. 

The program has provided 1,845 households with stable medium and long term housing and support packages, including counselling, mental health, family violence and health and wellness services. Council to Homeless Persons says it is vital these places are at the very least maintained, and when vacancies occur they are open to more of the 9,000 rough sleepers seen by our homelessness services in Victoria each year.

“One of the few good things to come out of the pandemic was the government’s promise of a home for life and long-term support for rough sleepers. Now, the government’s walked away from that promise and nearly 1,440 of those people will miss out on that life-changing ongoing support.”

The announcement of a $75 million investment in tackling homelessness over three years will provide welcome capital investment and over time some additional services, but the peak body for Victorian homelessness services warned it remained that there was now no soft landing for rough sleepers. 

“Homelessness is more than missing out on a safe bed at night – it creates insecurity which conspires to deprive people of work, education, and social opportunities. 

“One H2H participant described almost being poisoned by the adrenaline of living in constant crisis while on the streets, but a safe, secure home gave him a chance to take a breath and begin to rebuild.”

The From Homelessness to a Home program is inspired by housing first principles, a successful international model ending rough sleeping by housing and supporting people who have experienced long term and recurring homelessness. Key ingredients in the success of housing first is that housing is permanent and support must be available for as long as people need it.

Rising interest rates will put additional pressure on vulnerable Australians already struggling to survive as prices surge, wages stagnate and safe, secure housing slips further from reach.

St Vincent de Paul Society National President Claire Victory said: ‘Today’s rate rise will be another kick in the teeth for Australians living in poverty, who are already stretching every dollar to its limit.

‘The surging cost-of-living, shortage of affordable housing, increasingly insecure work and stagnant wages are making it all-but impossible for a growing number of Australians to survive.

‘Today’s interest rate hike will add to these pressures and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people in the community, who are already struggling to get by, often with limited family or social support networks,’ Ms Victory said.

The St Vincent de Paul Society has released a suite of simple, compassionate and affordable polices in the lead up to the federal election and is urging parties and candidates to put Australians in need at the heart of their campaigns.

The cost of implementing these policies involves modest reforms to superannuation and taxation, asking only the most well-off and able to afford it, to pay a little more.

‘Vinnies has stood by Australians in need for more than 170 years, providing emergency relief, housing, and other support services,’ Ms Victory said.

‘Our election statement, A Fairer Australia, is informed by our members’ experience meeting and helping Australians in need, and offers practical solutions to address widening inequality in households and communities, and lift many people out of poverty.

‘We are calling on parties and candidates to take urgent action in the remaining weeks of the campaign to support Australians living in, or at risk of falling into, poverty,’ Ms Victory said.

For more information on A Fairer Australia and a fairer tax and welfare system, visit www.vinnies.org.au

The Greens will push to build 118,900 homes in Western Australia over the next twenty years as part of their plan to build one million affordable homes across Australia to tackle the housing crisis.

To do this, the Greens will establish a Federal Housing Trust to construct and manage dwellings in partnership with states, territories and community housing providers. The national Greens build will end homelessness, slash housing waiting lists, provide housing options for people locked out of the housing market and create thousands of jobs. Three-quarters of all homes will be built for low-income renters who are eligible for public housing, with the remainder to be evenly split as affordable rentals and properties for purchase through shared ownership with the Commonwealth.

The federal policy has been fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and will reduce the fiscal balance by $7.5 billion over the forward estimates period. The full Greens ‘Homes for All’ policy is available on the Australian Greens website.

According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, 68,300 additional social housing dwellings will be needed in Greater Perth over a twenty year period. Outside of Perth, 18,200 additional dwellings will be needed across WA. The Greens build for Western Australia will surpass this projected shortfall and build 93,900 homes in Greater Perth and 25,000 outside of Perth, creating more than 6,300 jobs in the process.

	Total Need (AHURI) (‘000)	Total Build (‘000)	Low Income housing (‘000)	Universal access housing (‘000)	Shared equity (‘000)	Total Jobs	Ongoing Employment	Ongoing Apprenticeships
Greater Perth	68.3	93.9	70.4	11.7	11.7	4,226	3,841	384
Rest of WA	18.2	25.0	18.8	3.1	3.1	1,126	1,024	102

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi will be in Perth on Monday 11 April to announce the policy alongside WA Greens Senator Dorinda Cox.

Latest data sees rental vacancy rates at an all time low in WA, with a growing surge in rental prices and increased competition for renters, many of whom are struggling to find affordable housing. 

Senators Cox and Faruqi are hosting a Housing town-hall style forum in Perth on the evening of 11 April to discuss the housing crisis and the Greens plan to solve it.

The Greens have also announced policies on strengthening renters’ rights and winding back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount in order to solve the housing crisis and provide a home for all.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Housing said:

“Safe, secure, high-quality housing is a human right, not a privilege reserved only for those who are able to afford to pay through the nose for it. 

“Under the Greens plan, people will be able to afford to rent or purchase a property where they want to live.

“People who have been locked out of a home due to skyrocketing prices and a housing system stacked against them will be able to own a high-quality sustainable house and make it their home.

Senator Dorinda Cox, Greens Senator for WA said:

“Every West Australian deserves a roof over their heads, and a safe place to call home.

“In a property market rigged for speculators and wealthy investors, buying a home is well out of reach for most people. In WA, it’s currently too expensive for many people to both pay rent and save for a deposit. The Greens plan to address WA’s housing crisis tackles this head-on.

“Whether you are renting a home or buying one, a housing system should work for people, not profit.”

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has joined Arts spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at the Comedy Republic in Melbourne to back live arts with a pledge to 

• back the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) call for $250 minimum fee for artist performances at publicly-funded events, 
• establish a new $1b ‘Live Performance Fund’ 
• and deliver a Live Performance Insurance Guarantee

These commitments are all part of the Greens’ Creative Australia plan to invest in our arts, music and stories, with long-term funding and good, well-paid jobs. This also includes additional grant funding for COVID recovery through the RISE Fund, initiatives to boost our screen industry to tell Australian stories, the establishment of a Creativity Commission, and an artist-in-residence program.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young said:

“For the last two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Greens have been advocating for better support for our arts and live performance sector.

“The sector was smashed literally overnight and suffered the longest and hardest, yet repeated pleas to the Morrison Government for adequate help to survive and rebuild have been ignored.

“The Morrison government has treated the arts sector and creative workers with contempt, like a bunch of dim philistines who dismiss the public good of the arts but love belting out tunes from their favourite artists.

“The arts helped us all get through lockdowns whether it was listening to our favourite bands, watching our favourite shows, reading a good novel or appreciating other forms of art, it’s time we are there for them.

“Performers are the reason audiences show up, they deserve a minimum fee for publicly funded events – it’s the least the government can do.

“This minimum fee pledge is part of a comprehensive policy to revive and secure our arts and live performance industry, including with an enhanced grants fund (RISE) and a live performance insurance guarantee.”

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said:

“Artists helped get us through the longest lockdown in the world here in Melbourne, but Government support has been sorely lacking. 

“The impacts of the pandemic are still with us, as we saw with the devastating impacts of COVID-caused cancellations at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

“A live performance insurance fund will help artists and performers hit with COVID-related cancellations.

“For too long performers have been expected to wear massive financial risks, and this instability means a lot of people can’t get into or stay in the industry. 

“In balance of power, the Greens will push for musicians, comedians and other performers playing in government-backed events to get properly paid, and for more support for artists when gigs are cancelled.”

Background on Minimum Gig Fees Campaign

The Greens policy backs in the call from the MEAA for a minimum performance fee of $250 for musicians when organisations receive government funding. The policy will ensure artists are recognised and remunerated for their work, and go some way towards providing stability for artists who continue to face economic insecurity due to COVID. By legislating this, it will ensure publicly funded events reflect industry standards for payment as determined by industry bodies.

The MEAA campaign for a minimum support fee for musicians has been endorsed by State Governments in VIC, QLD, WA and SA. In NSW, support was given by the upper house, however it is yet to be legislated following the appointment of Perrotet as premier. Government-funded events should have the same approach.

Victoria’s fire preparedness is under threat with yesterday’s State Budget effectively cutting funding to the State’s professional fire service: with not one extra cent on previous years’ budgets despite inflation being at a record high.

United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall says the Budget puts firefighters and the community at risk.

“This is not about wages and allowances for firefighters – this is about the tools and training that firefighters need to save lives and property.”

Fire Rescue Victoria needs more funding, not less, if it is to do its job. For example …

New suburbs and growing towns need protection, but Fire Rescue Victoria can’t service them without funding. Communities that need FRV fire stations include Rockbank, Mernda, and Scoresby. Victorians all pay the same Fire Services Levy but those in these newer areas are not getting the guaranteed 7.7-minute emergency response that others get.

There is no Trench Rescue capability in Gippsland, or in the west from Ballarat (where two workers died tragically in a 2018 trench collapse) to Mildura. The State’s only Trench Rescue stations are Richmond, Wangaratta and Warrnambool.

FRV’s truck fleet is overdue for upgrade, with Rescue units still in use three years after their planned expiry (following a seven-year extension) and despite more than 90 OHS issues identified, Breathing Apparatus vans up to 32 years old, and old Pumpers still in use with no new Pumpers in sight. The FRV fleet poses a danger to firefighters and those they are called to help.

A lack of Training capability means firefighters can’t undergo skills maintenance or learn new specialist skills. FRV’s only functional training college is fully committed, and Victoria needs two more training facilities in outer Melbourne, or the training backlog will worsen.

Victoria is falling behind international stanndards:

Twenty years ago, the standard was a minimum of 7 professional firefighters on the fireground to

ensure safety, and allow firefighters to enter burning structures and comply with the “2 in, 2 out”

principle. Today, the global standard is for more a dozen on the fireground.

Outer metro areas like Rosebud and Pakenham have only have one truck crewed by four firefighters

– an unsafe response to fire incidents.

The AWU is launching a new initiative today to investigate farms the union suspects have been underpaying their workers, starting with employers who have publicly claimed changes to the Horticulture Award have destroyed their business model.

The new Horticulture Award mandates a baseline rate of pay to sit beneath the piece rate system – prompting several farm owners to publicly claim their business models have been destroyed. The union considers that if an employer’s business model is destroyed by having to meet Australian minimum wage requirements, it is likely these employers may have been routinely underpaying workers by a significant margin. 

AWU organisers will now be seeking to contact workers employed by these farms to check if they are owed money. The union will also be launching a new online tool for migrant workers – available in English and Chinese at launch – which will enable them to easily check whether they are being underpaid.

“If you’re out there whinging your business model can’t survive paying the Australian minimum wage, then it’s fair to assume you might have been ripping off your workers,” said AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton. 

“The NFF, when they were opposing the safety net we now have, kept telling everyone that no worker on piece rates was getting paid below the minimum wage anyway. If that’s the case, where’s all this complaining we’ve seen in the media coming from?

“We thank the complainers for giving us a good place to start in our new drive to identify historic and current underpayment in the industry.

“We strongly encourage anyone who has picked fruit in Australia, and who thinks they may have been ripped off, to contact us or to use the new calculator we’ve set up.

“The only way we fix this nasty scourge of underpayment and abuse is to start tackling it head on. There are many good farmers out there who respect Australian pay and Australian conditions. They shouldn’t be placed at a competitive disadvantage against the shonks and abusers that have been allowed to grow endemic under the current federal government.”

Greens LGBTIQA+ spokesperson Senator Janet Rice and candidate for Macnamara Steph Hodgins-May will today announce the Greens fully-costed plan for Achieving LGBTIQA+ Equality.

With the Liberals actively harming queer people, with Scott Morrison and Katherine Deves doing all they can to manufacture a culture war, and with Labor conspicuously silent on LGBTIQA+ rights, the Greens are the only party LGBTIQA+ people and progressives can rely on this election.

Under the LGBTIQA+ Equality plan, the Greens will appoint a Minister for Equality and an LGBTIQA+ Human Rights Commissioner and introduce a Charter of Rights to bolster federal anti-discrimination law.

This is the first Greens election policy aiming to expand the Ministry, reflecting the party’s commitment to ensuring LGBTIQA+ people are represented and heard at the highest level of government and across portfolios.

Today, Senator Rice will join Steph Hodgins-May at the Equality Now! event at Melbourne’s Pride Centre to outline the Greens’ bold plan, which will also include funding a national LGBTIQA+ health and wellbeing action scheme, addressing the housing and homelessness crisis, and ending conversion practices.

The Greens announcement today in Macnamara reflects the party’s optimism for winning the lower house swing seat, and the belief that LGBTIQA+ voters, young people, and progressives no longer feel represented by Labor or the Liberals.

The Greens will commit over $200 million in each year over the forward estimates period with costs of the policy to be met through measures such as the billionaires tax and corporate super-profits tax, as well as reversing unfair Stage 3 tax cuts.

Greens LGBTIQA+ spokesperson Senator Janet Rice said:

“LGBTIQA+ rights are non-negotiable. 

“Governments are supposed to serve all people. Instead, the Morrison government has been using queer people as a political football for years, and Labor has done a complete disappearing act on LGBTIQA+ rights. 

“Since the 2019 federal election, Labor has abandoned their values and LGBTIQA+ people. Labor axed their LGBTIQA+ portfolio, and betrayed queer and other marginalised communities when they voted with the Morrison government on the Religious Discrimination Bill.

“Between the cruelty of Katherine Deves attacks on trans people, Morrison’s cynical creation of culture wars to win back ultra-conservative voters, and Labor’s deafening silence, it’s never been more important to elect strong advocates for equality and LGBTIQA+ communities in parliament.

“The Greens are the only party that voters can be assured will always fight, inside and outside parliament, for equality and human rights for everyone.

“In balance of power, the Greens will push Labor to act on the important progressive issues, and drive meaningful action on funding holistic and comprehensive health services, secure housing and safe, positive spaces in schools and other institutions for LGBTIQA+ people.”

Greens Macnamara candidate, Steph Hodgins-May said:

“In the last year alone, LGBTIQA+ communities have faced discrimination and a fear-mongering campaign led by the most powerful people in the country. From the outright bigotry of the Religious Discrimination Bill the government tried to ram through Parliament with Labor’s support, to the recent attacks on trans people behind a facade of ‘protecting women’, this is a community that needs our support.

“Between the Liberals’ dangerous candidate Colleen Harkin backing in Katherine Deves and making deliberately hurtful statements about trans people, and Labor’s equivocation on protecting queer rights, it’s more important than ever to have Greens in balance of power fighting for LGBTIQA+ communities.

“Macnamara is home to the Victorian Pride Centre, and the iconic Pride March. Voters here deserve an MP who represents its values and will champion those values in Parliament. 

“When it came to votes on the floor of Parliament, the Labor party voted for Morrison’s hateful Religious Discrimination Bill. If elected to the next parliament, my votes will always be to protect LGBTIQA+ rights in law, not override them.”

Greens plan: Achieving LGBTIQA+ Equality

It is an indictment on the Tasmanian Government that the state’s natural environmental values, agricultural productivity, and cultural heritage have been so badly impacted by feral deer mismanagement. 

In a balance of power situation after the federal election, the Greens will push for federal intervention to fix the critical threat of feral deer on lutruwita/Tasmania’s biodiversity and cultural heritage.

Greens senator for lutruwita/Tasmania, Peter Whish-Wilson said: 

“Invasive species like feral deer pose a critical threat to lutruwita/Tasmania’s biodiversity and cultural heritage. They inhibit fire recovery, trample cushion plants, destroy fences and crops, and cost Tasmanian farmers $80m a year.

“It is an indictment on the Tasmanian Government that the state’s natural environmental values, agricultural productivity, and cultural heritage have been so badly impacted by feral deer mismanagement. 

“The State Government is failing to halt the spread of this pest and we now desperately need federal intervention. 

“In 2018, the Australian Greens led a Senate committee inquiry into the impact of feral deer, pigs and goats in Australia. The Senate inquiry report identifies that Federal Government funding is now needed to eradicate deer in Tasmania’s World Heritage Area, and it is encouraging that the Federal parliament recognises a zero-tolerance approach to deer in World Heritage Areas.

“The Greens plan will push for a standalone Key Threatening Process listing for feral deer in the EPBC Act, accompanied by a Threat Abatement Plan, to enhance the focus on controlling feral deer impacts.

“We will also push for necessary changes to existing legislative and regulatory frameworks to ensure that feral deer are treated as an environmental pest. 

“The Liberals have all but given up on stopping exploding feral deer numbers at a federal level: their department’s factsheet is over ten years old, and there is little specific reference to deer compared to other animals. Meanwhile the Labor Party isn’t much better. 

“Only the Greens have a plan to tackle this issue head on and work cooperatively across all levels of government to stop the spread of this pest.”

THE GREENS WILL: 

• End the protection for feral deer 
• Initiate and fund a process for a standalone Key Threatening Process listing for feral deer in the EPBC Act 
• Implement and fund a Threat Abatement Plan following any declaration of them as a “threatening process”
• Implement a Code of Practice for the humane control of Feral Deer 
• Review the roles of the Biosecurity Committee and Environment and Invasives Committee

Labor will widen eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, in line with the Government’s announcement today.
 
We’re not interested in playing politics when we see a good idea.
 
Unlike the Morrison Government, we can be trusted to deliver on our announcements for older Australians and pensioners.
 
The Liberals have a habit of making promises to pensioners at election time but cutting support at budget time. 
 
Over the course of their decade in power, this Government tried to lift the pension age to 70 years, and when Scott Morrison was in charge as Minister, he took 90,000 seniors off the Pensioner Concession Card.
 
When Labor was last in government, we delivered the biggest lift to the pension in history.
 
We know how important it is for healthcare to be accessible to all Australians. That’s why we will strengthen Medicare, and make it easier for Australians to see a doctor.
 
That’s in contrast to Scott Morrison, who has chosen a new Health Minister who thinks Medicare needs to be cut.
 
Only Labor can be trusted to deliver on this promise, and to protect Medicare for all Australians.

Millions of Australians will save $12.50 on medical scripts under an Albanese Labor Government, with a commitment to slash the cost of common medications. 

Labor will reduce the maximum co-payment under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from $42.50 to a maximum of $30, a reduction of 29 per cent.

Under Labor’s proposal a person taking one medication a month could save $150 a year, with those taking two medications a month saving up to $300 each year.

The changes to the PBS will take effect from the 1st of January 2023 and will save Australians more than $190 million in out-of-pocket costs.

The existing safety net provisions will continue and all scripts currently counting towards a patient’s safety net will continue to do so.

An Albanese Labor Government will ensure Australians have access to affordable medicines by listing every drug recommended by the independent experts on the PBS. 

The PBS is designed to keep medications affordable for Australians. The PBS and Medicare are the foundation stones of our health care system. 

An Albanese Labor Government will strengthen Medicare and the PBS.

Anthony Albanese said:
“Cost of living pressures are real. Everything is going up under the Morrison Government. These changes to the PBS are necessary because we need to make sure that Australians can afford the medications they need.”

Mark Butler said:
“We know out-of-pocket health care costs are too high in Australia and among the highest in the OECD countries. Cutting the cost of medications will help millions of Australians. Our changes to the PBS mean that the trip to the chemist won’t be an expensive one.”