Greens pledge to ‘end homelessness’
Josh Butler
The Greens have launched a plan they say would “end homelessness” in Australia, outlining a call for billions in extra funding for accommodation and supported tenancies.
At a launch in Brisbane today, the Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, will say the policy offers “every single one of the 37,800 people experiencing chronic homelessness across Australia access to a permanent home and wraparound support services, with no strings attached”. He says the Greens would push for such changes if they held a position of power in a potential minority parliament after the election.
The Greens want the federal government to fund 50,000 ongoing supportive tenancies over the next four years, as well as double housing and homelessness funding to state governments. People experiencing homelessness would be given secure housing, as well as wraparound services to manage personal, mental health or substance issues.
The minor party says current schemes leave homeless people in motels or boarding houses with little support. Their alternative plan would see an extra $5.2bn over four years to provide the 50,000 tenancies and build 40 new accommodation buildings (like youth foyers) nationwide, which would include housing and supports.
Doubling support to state governments for their homelessness programs would cost another $7.5bn over four years. The Greens say their policy would be paid for through their plans to increase taxes on big corporations and banks. Chandler-Mather said:
It might sound radical to some politicians, but the solution to homelessness is giving people homes and then providing the support they need to get back on their feet. In a minority parliament the Greens will keep [Peter] Dutton out and push Labor to fund real action on the homelessness and housing crisis.
Key events
Greens continue call for dental to be included under Medicare
As Josh Butler reported this morning, a re-elected Labor government would reduce the price of PBS-listed medicines to no more than $25 a script in a major election pledge to be included in next week’s budget.
Greens senator Nick McKim was on the Today show earlier this morning, and welcomed the move – calling for further measures to include dental under Medicare:
People are getting smashed everywhere they go with [the] cost of living, and health is a big, big part of that. The Greens have long been calling for relief to be given for people in health … We would really like to see dental into Medicare. That would have been a great thing for the government to do, and they still could do it in the budget next week. But as far as this announcement goes, it will provide much needed relief to millions of Australians.
He was also asked about a report in the Financial Review saying that treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is set to spend $100bn off budget, and responded:
If people are worried about the expenditure, the way to fix that and balance the budget is to make big corporations and ultra-wealthy billionaires pay their fair share of tax. And then we could do a lot of the good things, like putting dental into Medicare.
