ADJOURNMENT
Mr BURNS (Macnamara) (11:36): No Australian should ever be turned away from crisis or transitional housing, but we know that too many Australians each and every night, whether it be young people, or women and children fleeing a violent home, simply don't have a place to go that is safe. We need to do more in order to ensure that people who are facing probably the hardest moments of their lives have somewhere safe to go—crisis and transitional housing that is complemented by advice and the support services that they need in order to move through that and to get their life back on track.
We have made a record investment in crisis and transitional housing of already $700 million in grants, plus other grant programs that have supported and worked with state governments. We have recently announced a further $300 million in crisis and transitional housing to ensure that people who need a home in the worst moments of their life have one. Last week I went to the Northern Territory to speak at the Australian Homelessness Conference put on by AHURI, and I also had the absolute privilege of going to YiSSA.
YiSSA is the largest short-stay accommodation service in the country. There are over 300 units, and at any one moment there were almost 400 people living there on site. There were kids.
There were people who had serious health conditions. There were people who needed dialysis treatment. There were people who had experienced rough sleeping and homelessness for way too long.
It was an outstanding service. The team at Yilli and Mission Australia run this service. Yet the Northern Territory government decided that, instead of maintaining YiSSA, they were going to take all of the residents out—kick them all out—and move them to a site in Batchelor, 100 kilometres out of Darwin.
Of course they were unprepared for this; of course the Northern Territory government didn't actually do the work required to ensure that people were safe and had adequate care. They didn't have the homes in Batchelor ready for people. It is also going to cost them $18 million to build a completely new facility, when YiSSA is up and running and available.
The Northern Territory government not only rejected our $3½ million offer to help purchase the site; they also rejected the full over-$6 million offer put forward by the federal government to purchase the site. The Northern Territory government also promised to not move people who had severe medical needs, yet people with severe medical needs have been sent to Batchelor.
The bus that was driving people to Batchelor broke down and people were stuck waiting in the searing heat for hours while the replacement bus came to pick them up. The Northern Territory government has also kicked people out of YiSSA. Only 30 people are currently in Batchelor.
It has left hundreds of people homeless in Darwin when they already don't have enough services and already don't have enough capacity—and the Northern Territory government's response is to build a facility out of mind, out of sight, on gravel roads. When you've got people in wheelchairs meant to move through a very unstable, non-smooth surface, it is not only cruel; it is a waste of money, and, frankly, one of the worst public policy decisions I have ever seen in my time in politics.
The Northern Territory government have proven themselves to be not only cruel but incompetent. To pursue this outcome is infuriating, because they themselves know that they have a problem with crisis and transitional housing. They know that we are keen to work with them to do more.
They know that treating First Nations people in this way is nothing but cruel and, frankly, bigoted—yet they chose to go ahead with the Batchelor model. Each and every member of that CLP government should be deeply, deeply ashamed of themselves. Question agreed to.
Federation Chamber adjourned at 11:42