Navigating the Road Home

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Navigating the Road Home

• national advocacy on the White Paper

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• Overview where are we at with the WP?
• Better placed now than when Bob Hawke said No
  child will live in poverty
• We have ambitious targets, but also have
• a national strategy (White Paper)
• funding committed to 2013
• We also have major challenges
• governance model is weak
• hard to get picture across different states

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• Overview (cont)
• 2 topics for this presentation
• advocacy/lobbying in 2009
• what are some of the challenges over the next 5
  years?

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• Advocacy/lobbying in 2009
• Lobbying public service (programs, policy)
• FaHCSIA
• research strategy, legislation to replace SAAP
• Centrelink
• White Paper measures
• other related measures National Compact for
  Young Australians

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• Lobbying public service (cont)
• DEEWR and Job Services Australia
• H.O.P.E. project Housing Options and Pathways
  to Employment
• Will JSA model deliver?
• 4 streams with varying levels of support,
• brokerage for clients in stream 4
• Innovation Fund

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• advocacy at a state/territory level
• Policy Officers in SA, WA, Tas, NT
• State conferences YAA, CHP, QShelter/QCOSS
• SAAP reform paper
• overview of whats happening to SAAP

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• Lobbying politicians
• House of Reps Inquiry into new homelessness
  legislation
• Talk to number of different Ministers
• Canberra AGM Plibersek, Ellis (youth), Arbib
  (employment services)
• Greens, Liberals

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• Talk in the media
• Do about a dozen media releases a year
• Generally get interest from who you would expect,
  ie ABC, SBS
• harder to get interest from Daily Telegraph
• sometimes we get a real bang
• - 20 media interviews after release of Counting
  the Homeless data

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• Building networks
• In other sectors
• NESA Conference
• Australian Drugs Conference
• Australias Welfare Conference
• National Housing Conference
• Pull all of this work together at the 2010
  National Homelessness Conference

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• 5 major challenges to remember over the next 5
  years
• Capture the public interest
• Skill up the media on homelessness
• Manage relationships with politicians in a
  subtle, clever way
• Need some champions in govt, from other sectors
  (like employment, AOD etc)

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• Remember that advocacy is a long hard process.

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