Kevin Rudd has released the Government’s first Green Paper, on a subject close to his heart – homelessness.
There’s no doubt Rudd has a passion for the issue. He has repeatedly visited homeless shelters, usually without media, and asked Labor MPs to do the same. He is convinced that Australia has failed on the issue. Rudd’s adoption of the issue is the sort of thing that makes you think that maybe, just maybe, he can be one of our great Prime Ministers, if he drops the spin and stunts.
The Which Way Home Green Paper, launched today by Rudd and Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek, starts from the perspective that the main program for addressing homelessness, the joint Commonwealth-State-funded Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, isn’t working. It proposed three options – effectively splitting SAAP into separate youth, criminal justice, health and ageing, and housing streams to more effectively target assistance; overhauling and strengthening SAAP itself; or strengthening mainstream services and confining SAAP to emergency situations only.
The tenor of the paper is that the solution lies somewhere in strengthening mainstream services to deal with homelessness, and more effectively targeting SAAP so that it deals not just with immediate emergencies, but provides a longer-term pathway out of homelessness.
The Green Paper consultation process will be relatively short – a White Paper outlining a policy proposal is due in September.
What’s also interesting is that Rudd is clearly a believer in a policy development process in which the Government makes an effort to formally consult via a Green Paper process before proposing a course of action and seeking further comment via a White Paper process.
The Howard Government’s Papers were few and far between. There were plenty of discussion papers released by portfolio ministers, but they were frequently for the purpose of pretending to consult (I know, I helped write some of them) and there was no clear outcome for parties that bothered to make submissions. Green Paper processes are bureaucratic and look a bit old-fashioned, but they restore consultation – for all its good and bad points – to a formal role in the Government’s policy process.
With all the problems facing our Kev with oil prices, intrest rates,and keeping the “working families” happy I dont think his concerns with the homeless will last long. The problems with homelessness are going to grow so rapidly he will just have to ignore it and pretend it doesnt exist the way that Howard ignored the Aboriginal issues. I believe he thought that they would dissapear when he dumped ATSIC but alas they resurfaced worse than ever.
Howard stopped building public housing years ago believing that it was cheaper to give pensioners and the like up to $50.00 per week if they rented privately for accommodation that cost more than $100.00 per week. The problem is that our hero Kevin has inherited this wonderful system whereby there is no accommodation for rent for $100.00 per week or indeed, $200.00 or rarely even $300.00 per week which is more than the total of the pension plus any rent assistance.
One does not have to be Einstien to work out the ramification of this situation. If all of one’s pension and rent assistance goes on rent, how do you pay for luxuries like food, clothing and power etc or heaven forbid, a car and phone. Something has to give and it is about to blow out in such a way that poor little Kevin and Wayney Poo will have to create some conflict within the opposition leadership to create a smokescreen to divert attention. Hope all those pesky old farts dont get their gear off again and embarress us folks living in luxury in our caravan parks because we cant afford to rent even though we are working and are well past pension age and cant afford to stop..
I still bask in the glory of the apology to the stolen generation and the signing of Kyoto but I fear that from here on in our kevin is in deep shit and I truly hope that he doesnt crumble and chuck the towel in.
It was good to read Bob Hulands views though I did not hate Howard (tho’ certainly wasn’t a fan either). I have yet to be convinced of anything concrete done by Rudd yet. Youth alcohol and drug abuse and homelessness were 2(related) areas that I have had high hopes that he may have something substantial to offer. Time will tell.