Ms O’CONNOR – Minister, I’d like to have a chat with you about Housing Connect. It’s been under review for about five years now. Aren’t you creating Housing Connect 2.0, which has been a long and drawn-out change process – perhaps, if you want to avoid having to laugh at me, when we will see –
Mr BARNETT – No, I’m not. I’m sorry, please.
Ms O’CONNOR – That’s all right; but when will we see the new Housing Connect 2.0 implemented, and would you like to share with the committee your understanding of what the model will be?
Mr BARNETT – Thank you very much for the question. Before I even answer the question, I will say 1800 800 588 –
Ms O’CONNOR – Yay.
Mr BARNETT – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Ms O’Connor – so, there you go.
Ms O’CONNOR – Well done.
Mr BARNETT – Everyone needs a roof over their head. Housing Connect has a very important role to play as a one stop shop for people seeking housing assistance that provides that front door on housing support. People can be assisted into brokered accommodation; emergency accommodation; short-term homeless accommodation; social housing; and supported accommodation and affordable private rentals. The Housing Connect single access point means we have the integrated housing and homelessness service in the country, according to my advice. We want to keep improving the system so, yes – the Housing Connect 2.0 reform will improve housing assistance in Tasmania, including the online Housing Connect.
We want Tasmanians to get better and faster access to that assistance. It’s been co designed by our current Housing Connect partners through the Housing Connect Steering Committee. I thank the members of that committee – the working group from Housing Connect Front Door; Housing Connect Support Crisis Transitional Accommodation; Brotherhood of St Laurence; and Homes Tasmania. Geometry Pty Ltd supported an extension to the project extension. The project extension is until 1 July 2024. Jessemy Stone might want to add to this answer. It will provide scope for a Housing Connect portal – a new backend system, to provide a more user-friendly system that will replace the current system. The portal development is well underway by Tasmanian software development company, Geometry, with valuable input on the Portal Working Group.
In conclusion, the newly-built Housing Connect information platform will deliver a tailor-made, single technology solution across Housing Connect 2.0 – simplified, intuitive and efficient for users.
Ms O’CONNOR – Minister, when the original Housing Connect model was put in place when I was the minister, we went through quite a protracted, but ultimately worthwhile, process of basically locking the housing providers in a room and having a mediator in there enabling a sector-driven service structure. Is it your plan to move to a single statewide provider? The reason I ask this question is multi-layered. As I understand it, the original review found that staying with that regional makeup worked but we have some massive players in community housing. I suggest there would be a conflict of interest, for example, if you let an organisation like Centacare Evolve run your Front Door service; and I also think that Colony 47 has done an outstanding job for the last decade or so. I am interested to understand what you see this looking like and how, apart from those things you said before in your answer, that would improve service delivery if, at the end of the day, there are still not enough homes.
Mr BARNETT – Thank you for the question and I understand that. It is clearly an operational matter. I will ask the CEO to respond.
Ms MORGAN-THOMAS – Thank you, minister. Although that was all worked out, one of the issues we discovered is a discrepancy between what happens in different locations, which has been confusing for clients. We have worked with the sector to go through this. It is not entirely agreed by all of the providers, because some of them are interested in what happens to them in this space. I would encourage all of them to think about how they can best meet the needs that are expressed by the clients about consistency.
It doesn’t mean you need to have one provider. Our preference is for that, but we are open to ideas. We will go to a request for a tender in August 2023, and what we might get from that are a variety of different options about the way we do it. You are right, there are some conflicts of interest for some of the providers you talk about, which would also be the same for us. I think that is likely to be a thing.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. I would say the consistency issues are ultimately resolvable, because as a funding body, the funding body can direct the providers to have a consistent service, no matter where people live in the state. I don’t buy the consistency argument as a reason to undo the whole thing. I’m not necessarily saying that is what is happening.
How might you deal with conflicts of interests, where you now have very big community housing providers that are very wealthy from an asset and an income point of view? Is there consideration, or do you think it would desirable not to have a community housing provider be the Connect provider?
Mr BARNETT – That is a question around procurement, so I will pass to the CEO.
Ms MORGAN-THOMAS – It is a procurement question, but from what I know about Centacare Evolve, I would be surprised if they put their hand up to do this.
Ms O’CONNOR – I’m sorry. I should not be so specific about Centacare Evolve, except I’ve seen their balance sheets over the nine years that the Liberals have been in Government, and I’ve seen rivers of money flow into that community housing provider for a whole range of services. In terms of the kind of organisation you’d be looking to run, either a regionalised model that is more consistent, or a statewide model, what do you think the metric is there?
Ms MORGAN-THOMAS – We will be going to a closed tender of organisations that are already in the space, rather than looking to others. I would expect the providers that are currently doing it would be well placed to participate in that procurement.
