Overview
Mission Australia has made recommendations to the 2024-25 NSW Budget in five main areas.
Housing and homelessness
- Deliver a minimum of 5,000 newly built or acquired social homes annually over the next ten years, including a mixture of housing models that cater to the needs of specific vulnerable cohorts such young people, older women and people with support needs.
- Fund a minimum of five shovel-ready new Foyers in NSW in the next two years.
Increase funding of homelessness services by 20% to boost current crisis interventions. - Implement Tailored Support Co-ordination services for all public housing tenants who require support to either maintain their tenancies to avoid homelessness or to build capacity to transition to the private market.
- Review the No Exits from Government Services into Homelessness: A framework for multi-agency action and make necessary changes and investments to meet its objectives and hold relevant government agencies to account for its implementation.
- Fund programs that support people exiting government institutions, such as health facilities, corrections and out-of-home care, to find, secure and sustain housing.
- Fund Stage 2 Pathways to Independent Living Initiative (PCLI) program to enable full implementation following a rigorous procurement process.
- Expand the Housing and Support Initiative (HASI) program to enable more people with mental illness to live independently in the community with support.
Strong and sustained prevention and early intervention investment for children, youth and families most in need
- Invest $20 million over four years to further support care leavers with tailored education, employment, housing, health, wellbeing and community supports to help them to prepare for life after care, based on Victoria’s Better Futures program.
- Rebalance investment through increased funding across the family support early intervention and prevention sector by 25%.
- Roll out an evidence-based early intervention program across NSW.
Addressing cost of living pressures
- Improve conditions and protections for NSW renters.
Push the Commonwealth Government to lift Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, and related payments (e.g. Commonwealth Rent Assistance) to protect people from poverty. - Improve the availability, accessibility and impact of NSW Government cost-of-living schemes for low-income households.
- Address transport affordability for groups whose participation in employment, education and other opportunities is most at risk.
- Ensure that NSW’s food relief system is fit for purpose, supports households most in need and represents the best use of available resources and skills.
Gambling reform
Implement in full the recommendations of the ‘Put Pokies in their Place’ campaign which include:
- a universal identity-linked cashless payment system with harm minimisation measures is independently administered o poker machines are turned off from midnight to 10am
- a limit is placed on the number of poker machines in NSW Clubs
Councils have the right to be consulted about poker machines in their local government area - an end is put to gambling advertising.
Investing in the community sector
- Fund the full cost of service delivery, including infrastructure, management and administration costs, and appropriate indexation.
- Shift to long-term contracts when commissioning and recommissioning services, of at least seven years for most programs and 10 years for place-based programs in communities with persistent and entrenched disadvantage or in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.