Queensland’s community service peak bodies unite on election statement

Queensland community services peaks election statement
Queensland General Election 2020
​
Resource the Family Matters Queensland campaign and actions identified in the Our Way Strategy and Changing Tracks Action Plan
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Queensland are 8.5 times more likely to be removed from their families by child protection services than non-Indigenous children. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system, particularly those children in care and living away from their families, must be reduced. This could begin to be addressed by:

• Adequately resourcing the Family Matters Queensland campaign and the actions identified in the state government’s Our Way Strategy and Changing Tracks Action Plan.
  
  

Build more social housing and make renting fair
 Everyone deserves to have a safe, stable and accessible place to call home, yet there are more than 22,000 households on Queensland’s social housing waitlist, 22,000 people in the state experience homelessness and more than 30 per cent of low-income households experience rental stress. To reduce the number of people experiencing housing stress and homelessness in Queensland:

• Invest in social housing by building 10,000 units of housing each year for ten years in collaboration with the community housing sector.
• Ensure universal design in all new dwellings and increase capacity in existing dwellings to adequately accommodate people with disability and older people.
• A focus on building social housing in regional Queensland, and prioritised for people with disability, older people, people fleeing domestic violence, cultural and linguistically diverse communities, and younger people.
• Implement reforms to the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 in line with the Make Renting Fair Alliance Queensland campaign agenda.
• Measures should include ending unfair no-fault evictions, implementing basic living standards, allowing family pets in rental homes, ensuring people have access to information that may affect their tenancies, and streamlining bond refund processes.

 
Build the capacity and capability of the community services sector
The community services sector has played a central role in the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to do so as the state recovers.
With growing unemployment, financial distress and social and emotional challenges associated with the pandemic, more Queenslanders will be turning to our services for support.
The community services sector is a major employer in Queensland, and 80 per cent of the workforce is made up of women. It is vital to Queensland’s economic recovery to invest more in the social services industry and caring workforce.
Increased funding for community organisations will mean our services can meet demand, create jobs and ensure there is an adequate safety net for the growing number of people who need support:

• Support community services organisations, including NDIS providers and other federally funded services, to comply with their responsibilities under the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld), including supporting training, updating HSQF, and supporting organisations to review and update policies and practices.
• Guarantee the indexation of funding and equal remuneration order (ERO) funding for all community services organisations.
• A long-term funding program to address the technological needs (education, devices and data) of vulnerable Queenslanders as more mainstream services increasingly move to flexible and virtual delivery of supports.