Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I rise tonight to speak on an issue that should disturb every single one of us in this Chamber: the heartbreaking reality of child homelessness in Tasmania.
Last night, as part of the University of Tasmania’s Island of Ideas series, Associate Professor Catherine Robinson spoke about child homelessness in an address titled ‘Unaccompanied Children Homeless Alone’. Professor Robinson shared haunting stories from real children across Tasmania. She revealed the brutal truth of unaccompanied children experiencing homelessness – children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves alone and without a roof over their heads. As Professor Robinson stated, how on earth do we arrive at a scenario in this country where we see children freefalling through the care of families and multiple agencies of the state and experiencing homelessness on their own?
These children, some of them as young as 10, are not just statistics. They are not faceless names in a report or figures in a budget sheet. They are Tasmanians – our children – living through the trauma of homelessness, isolated and unsupported. Professor Robinson emphasised that we must be relentless in supporting children in the face of systemic failure. Every adult must do better for them. According to the 2021 census, homelessness in Tasmania has increased 45 per cent since 2016. This rising tide of homelessness is disproportionately affecting our children, and one quarter of Tasmania’s homeless population is aged between 12 and 24.
What is perhaps even more confronting is that 400 children and young people presented to services in Tasmania last year unaccompanied, and these are just the ones who found the courage to seek help. Some of these children are living on the streets, sleeping rough, couch‑surfing or moving from one unstable situation to the next. These are children who have fallen outside our existing systems of care. They are not in the formal child protection system and not under the state’s care, and they are too often lost in a culture of referral where responsibility is passed from one agency to the next. No one wants to own these kids or to take responsibility for their safety and wellbeing.
Every day in Tasmania, requests for urgent help from children aged from two to 17 go unassisted. The problem is not just a lack of affordable housing, though that is certainly a significant factor. It is about a crisis of care. We have failed to provide the services these children desperately need, and the system designed to protect and support them has gaps so wide they are swallowing the futures of our most vulnerable children.
The solution is not simple, but the problem is not impossible to solve. First, we must acknowledge and name childhood unaccompanied homelessness as a critical issue in its own right. We cannot continue to lump these children in with general homelessness statistics. Just today, Mission Australia and Origin released a report entitled ‘Counting the Cost of Living: the Impact of Financial Stress on Young People’. This report underscores the urgency of last night’s Island of Ideas event. The study, based on nearly 20,000 responses to Mission Australia’s youth survey, highlights the profound financial stress facing young people across the nation. The report shows financial stress is entangled with the housing crisis, poor mental health outcomes and systemic inequities that are leaving too many of our young people behind.
The parallels between this data and the realities faced by unaccompanied homeless children here in Tasmania are clear. Our children do not just face housing crisis, they are living through the accumulating impacts of financial stress and societal neglect. The government must step up and commission support specifically designed to address unaccompanied child homelessness. That means better prevention and early intervention services, and stronger, better‑resourced systems for the care of children. As it stands, we are watching younger and younger children present for help, and yet the services that can meet their unique needs are shamefully underfunded.
In light of both the Mission Australia report and Professor Robinson’s speech last night, I urge the Rockliff government to act. We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the growing financial stress and housing instability affecting our children and young people, especially those who are already the most vulnerable. Rather than continuing down a path of denial and inaction, we must follow the lead of this report’s recommendations and implement solutions that give our children and young people a fighting chance.
