Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Deputy Speaker, I rise to talk on this MPI, prioritising children and young people, and thank Ms Rosol for bringing it forward. I want to focus on one of my portfolio areas, specifically housing, because we are in a housing crisis and we know that a safe and secure roof over children’s heads is a fundamental basic tenet for them having a good start in life. It goes all the way to having security around school and access to school, access to friendship groups and access to, literally, a sense of security.
We know that here in Lutruwita/Tasmania we have a housing crisis. We are not meeting our responsibilities to deliver housing for families and children, when housing is a human right. This is a deep shame on us as a state and as a community, because we can and should be doing this. It’s a matter of choice, a matter of priorities about where we put our infrastructure spend. To go over some of the statistics that have been prosecuted in this place already but need to be said in the context of this debate, we have 5336 applicants on the public housing waitlist. Many of these applications would include families and children who are desperate for a secure place. These applicants are waiting up to 100 weeks and this is simply not good enough.
We know there are challenges within the housing stock and we know there are fundamental challenges in the model that has been established with Homes Tasmania and public housing in this state. We know it is a a system that is absolutely struggling, not only to meet the needs of Tasmanians, but it’s struggling under the new structure.
The Budget this year has demonstrated how the government is shifting its responsibilities to fund public housing off the general government sector books and putting it onto Homes Tasmania. Debt for Homes Tasmania will go up from $500 million this year to over $1 billion in 2028-29 at the end of the forward Estimates. That’s going to cost Homes Tasmania $25 million to service this year and $50 million to service in 2028-29. We know this is creating a serious problem in the capacity of Homes Tasmania to actually build the houses, and that’s why we’re seeing, unfortunately, figures fudged.
The government has a noble target of 10,000 new – let’s call it ‘new’ because that’s what the policy commitment was new – public and affordable houses by 2032 and we know that as they report on progress to those targets, they are reporting crisis accommodation, they are reporting private land sales and other, I guess, illusions that help make up the numbers and pump up the tyres of the numbers that Homes Tasmania is delivering. This isn’t good enough. We need to be better. We need to be more honest with our community about what we are delivering to them and how we are delivering this to them.
This was writ large in the context of the security of children just last week when Anglicare released their report, which showed that, very distressingly, the number of children in families seeking support has grown by 60 per cent since the same period last year. That’s a 60 per cent increase in families with children seeking support. This comes on top of some other shocking statistics in that report, including an 88 per cent increase in the number of people sleeping rough. We know there are families sleeping rough. We are know there are single women escaping domestic violence who are sleeping rough with their children. That’s not just in cars or tents, that’s couch surfing and in insecure and unsafe accommodation. There’s been an 88 per cent increase in people sleeping rough, full stop. They’re on the Domain, they’re in cars, they’re under the Tasman Highway, and they’re in people’s backyards and on their couches.
There’s been a 54 per cent increase in people living in unsuitable dwellings. They’re freezing cold, they’re mouldy and the like. That’s why we need more protections for renters. We need rent controls, we need minimum standards so those homes are warm, we need no‑cause eviction protection so that those children and families can live securely in their homes. We need this because children deserve it. We owe this to future generations because they need the best possible start in life in this state.
