6PR Drive with Adam Shand
E&OE
Subjects: Homelessness
ADAM SHAND:
Now, to WA’s own, good afternoon Christian.
MINISTER PORTER:
Adam how are you?
ADAM SHAND:
Very well thanks. How’d you go with the Budget? Did you get what you wanted? For your portfolio?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well mine is a challenging portfolio Adam, I’ve got thirty-five per cent of the Commonwealth budget and it’s a growing thirty-five per cent so part of the task I’ve got is to try and restrain that expenditure growth and focus on trying to give it to the people who need it the most. We banked a lot of savings which we’re putting into an account to pay for the NDIS when it comes into full scheme in 2019-20 so I think that’s a very good initiative. Just over $2billion dollars is being saved from other areas, including closing the carbon tax, being placed in this account to make sure that the most vulnerable and needy Australians are going to be looked after.
ADAM SHAND:
What about the homeless?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well I mean a great deal of money is spent in the area of homelessness so there’s…
ADAM SHAND:
No extra money though.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well that’s not entirely correct. So with some of the money that will be spent in the domestic violence area there’s a particular focus on housing and homelessness at the flash points of domestic violence and it’s also the case that previous money that we renewed outside the Budget cycle for the national partnership on homelessness again has a focus on that area of…
ADAM SHAND:
I’m just looking at your press release and there’s not a mention of the homeless there at all and not only are you not committing extra funds specifically to the homeless you’re not indexing the money that you’re already committing. So you’re going backwards at a time when homelessness is increasing.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well Adam that assumes that the only funds are the funds that aren’t being indexed…
ADAM SHAND:
There’s nothing in the press release Christian I’m just going on what you told us.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well there’s more going on than simply the press release. The Budget is a very large document and Adam I’ve noted to you this Government is the Government that renewed the national partnership in this area with the States, including WA, something the previous Government failed to do. That represents hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. What we have done with that money is require that it is expended in a way so there’s a potential of focus on homelessness issues for victims of domestic violence. So it’s not entirely correct I must say, so next time when you say there’s nothing…
ADAM SHAND:
Well it’s your press release you see and I would have thought you’d be so… it starts off saying that you’re committed to providing a strong, (inaudible) for Australia’s most vulnerable. There are no more people more vulnerable than the homeless and they’re not mentioned in this Budget. Next time you’re in Perth Christian, let’s go for a walk around Perth and look at the number of people who are sleeping on the streets every night. Are we doing well enough?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well it’s a shared responsibility between the States and the Commonwealth, but what you’re putting to me is that there’s not appropriate levels of funding and we do fund it considering, quite extensively. I don’t need to, with much respect Adam, do a tour with you, and I’m well aware of the issue…
ADAM SHAND:
Well let’s do it then. If we’re doing dinner let’s…
MINISTER PORTER:
It’s my town, but it is a very difficult problem but what we have done is renewed money that the previous Government failed to renew and we’ve put a focus on victims of domestic violence. I think that’s a very good initiative.
ADAM SHAND:
You’re also making a crackdown on welfare generally, how much can we expect to see there?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well in this particular Budget we say there are savings to be guarded in the order of about sixty-five million dollars by running ninety thousand reviews of people on the Disability Support Pension. So when we inherited government there were 830 thousand Australians or one in 20 Australians of working age were collecting the Disability Support Pension. It’s a self-evidently higher number we looked through those people and we were trying to identify, particularly in the under 35 age range where people have a capacity or be it limited capacity to work try and help them back into the workforce because it seems to get payment like the DSP is appropriate for some people who have actually no capacity to work. But it’s not a very good outcome for people can engage in the workforce. If they can, they should. It’s better for them, certainly better for the tax payer, but it means that a far more interesting and involved and productive life makes people, ultimately much happier – so that is if they’re engaged in the workforce.
ADAM SHAND:
I agree, I agree, now one of the, we’re talking a little about the ingredients towards radicalisation of youth in this country and you have made an additional investment of nearly $11million on building social cohesion for recently arrived migrants. I think there is a view out there amongst the migrants taken, particularly the refugees and so forth that we are importing terrorism in our society. How do we address that through greater social cohesion?
MINISTER PORTER:
Well that money comes on top of a very large amount of money that spent in resettlement services which I’m responsible for and that’s in the vicinity of a six-hundred million in total and we are trying to have as much focus as we can, firstly on employment pathways which make for better, happier newly arrived students. But also specifically programmes to target younger people and try and buttress them against radicalisation. If I might say so, with respect to your summary comment, that the first and foremost protection for all Australians is the very, very stringent application processes that we run offshore which use things as an indicator. There’s biometric checks, we look into everyone’s prior history, right down to things like health but also all of their prior activities and what I can say is that we have the most stringent system in the world in terms of vetting people who come to Australia under the humanitarian and refugee stream. That’s about thirteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty a year generally plus the twelve thousand additional people who are displaced and can’t return to their homes because of the conflict in Syria.
ADAM SHAND:
Now I will extend that invitation to you to walk around Perth here and see the homelessness issue and I know this is your hometown but there are a lot of people every night who have no home and I think that is to be our focus and I think a lot of people are saying why are we spending money on Syrian refugees when there are people in our streets every night with nowhere to go. Surely priorities have to be right.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well you know the people that I’ve met who’ve arrived from Syria, for instance a family that I met recently who were a Christian family who have been in refugee camps for a long time, yes they are homeless and I guess in that sense there’s a comparison to people who are homeless in Australia. But the reality is that, that Christian family of Syria had they attempted to return to their home they may well have been killed. So I think that there are differences.
ADAM SHAND:
People die on the streets every day you know very regularly, here in Perth as well and I think what I would seek for the audience is that people want to see that problem addressed before we bring other problems into our own country.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well I must say I can’t agree that you have to choose between one or the other…
ADAM SHAND:
No it’s priorities.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well the reality is that we are a generous nation in terms of the way in which we bring in humanitarian refugees and displaced people into Australia. By international comparisons we’re very generous and we can afford to be generous in my observations. It’s not that much, probably about right. The numbers that we take in are about right for Australia. It’s not an indicative business. It’s part of our international obligation as good citizens of the world and humane people and generous people. But I don’t accept that it’s a choice between one or the other I think that’s a very, very…
ADAM SHAND:
It’s not a choice I’m saying it’s a sense of priorities that’s why I’m not saying one over the other, I’m saying let’s do both. Let’s get the balance right okay?
MINISTER PORTER:
What you’re saying Adam is we should bring in less people from humanitarian and refugee inputs and transfer the money directly to homelessness.
ADAM SHAND:
I’m saying charity begins at home.
MINISTER PORTER:
Well I think that we’ve got the balance about right. I mean your suggesting a difference balance which is suggesting our humanitarian, refugee intake should come down then I guess that’s something that…
ADAM SHAND:
I’m saying let’s walk on the streets of Perth, your hometown and you tell me whether you’re happy with the situation going on. We’re going to leave it there, thank you for your time.
MINISTER PORTER:
Yeah thanks Adam, cheers.
ADAM SHAND:
That’s Christian Porter, Social Services Minister and I think that there’s absolutely nothing in the Budget…