15 June 2023

15 June 2023

Rental Fairness Bill – Secret rent bidding

We were pleased to hear the Premier, Chris Minns', announcement that the NSW Government will task the soon-to-be-appointed Rental Commissioner with considering the best approach to end secret rent bidding. This followed a 2 June 2023 hearing by a Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly, where I appeared as a witness alongside Leo Patterson-Ross, CEO of the Tenants' Union of NSW and John Engeler, CEO of Shelter NSW.

The important reforms in the Rental Fairness Bill, including a portable bonds scheme, will proceed. This is a good reform that will make a real difference, particularly to renters on low incomes. You can read our joint media release here. You can read the NCOSS submission to the Select Committee here.

We appreciate the NSW Government’s willingness to listen to the sector’s concerns and work, collaboratively, towards a solution that will provide real protections for renters that balance the need for urgent action with the risk of unintended consequences.

Fair Work’s Minimum Wage Case decision

On 2 June, the Fair Work Commission announced an 8.6% increase to the minimum wage and 5.75% in the award minimum wage. They kick in from the first pay period in July 2023.

The sector goes above and beyond to support vulnerable individuals, families and communities and better pay for sector’s undervalued female dominated workforce and the increase to the Award was most welcome. We also welcome the Commission’s announcement of its intention to focus on the pay disparity in highly feminised industries.

In the meantime, NCOSS has called on the NSW Government to commit to adequate indexation in sector funding to cover the rise in labour costs, the 0.5% superannuation guarantee levy increase (which also had effect from July), and spiralling inflation costs. Read our media release here.

The Secretary of the ASU’s NSW Branch, Angus McFarland, and I have also written to the Treasurer reminding him that indexation needed to flow from July as cash strapped, frontline services couldn’t wait till the September budget.

Mapping Economic Disadvantage in NSW research – updated Dashboard

Following feedback from members, we have launched an updated version of the Dashboard (here). This Dashboard now has a new tab where you can see the rates of low-income households for certain communities – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities; and people with a disability. We have also fixed a minor issue with the original Dashboard.

I encourage you all to download the new Dashboard if you intend to use it for your planning, service delivery or advocacy.

NSW Expert Housing Panel

Last Friday I attended the NSW Expert Housing Advisory Panel, where we heard from the Hon Rose Jackson MLC, in her role as Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness.

Other organisations on the Panel include the Housing Industry Association, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA), the Aboriginal Community Housing Industry Association, Tweed Shire Council, the Independent Planning Commission, the National Affordable Housing Alliance and Councillor Alice Glachan, as a local government member.

It is clear that housing is a critical priority for the Government, and they are looking at ways to engage the Expert Housing Advisory Panel on this journey. Watch this space.

Congrats Cassandra Goldie AO and Emma King OAM!

It was great to see Cassandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS, and Emma King, CEO of VCOSS, in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours list.

Cassandra’s gong is for distinguished service to social justice through leadership and advocacy to promote the rights of people marginalised and disadvantaged in the community. Emma received hers for service to the community through social welfare organisations.

Both have been long-standing leaders and tireless advocates in the fight for social justice and it's gratifying their efforts have been recognised – and that, for the first time, we saw women dominating the honours list.

On the agenda

Tomorrow, I’m catching up with QCOSS CEO, Aimee McVeigh to learn more about the Town of Nowhere campaign, the blueprint for tackling Queensland’s housing crisis co-authored by Professor Hal Pawson and other UNSW City Futures Research Centre colleagues, and what the QLD Government is doing about it.

Next week I’ll spend my last few days in the hot seat before Joanna returns, following her Churchill Fellowship research trip.

During that time, I’ll be chairing the NGO Researcher’s Forum on 22 June – it’s not too late to RSVP – catching up with the Everybody’s Home Campaign Leader’s Group and attending a roundtable of sector organisations to discuss what the Australian Government’s $300 million commitment for social housing upgrades will look like at a state and territory level.

It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to lead NCOSS while Joanna has been away. I look forward to continuing to work with you all as I step back into my role as NCOSS’ Director, Policy & Advocacy.

The Community Sector Disaster Capability Reference Group has been exploring the questions:

What is the role of the NGO Sector in Disaster Risk Reduction?
What Disaster Risk Reduction activities should the NGO Sector lead on?
What Disaster Risk Reduction activities should the NGO Sector contribute to? How?

There are a lot of possibilities, including:

community disaster preparedness planning like Ngunya Jarjum’s Preparing for Disasters project
advocating for communities, in particular diverse and vulnerable communities
providing the "human" perspective to identify potential risks and potential impacts that other agencies may not see.

What are your ideas?
How has your organisation been working to reduce future disaster risks?
Share your ideas and experiences, email info@ncoss.org.au!

Find out more about the Community Sector Disaster Capability Project, a partnership between AbSec, LSCA, and NCOSS, jointly funded under by the Australian and NSW Governments through the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund.

Recently, the School Gateway Project visited school-based wellbeing hubs in Forbes and Narromine.

Funded through Allan and Gill Gray Philanthropy Australasia over three years (2021-23), the School Gateway Project aims to lift children’s educational outcomes in economically disadvantaged locations by bringing social and health services, along with enrichment activities, into the school setting.

The school partnering with us in the project is the Ashcroft Public School in the development of the Mirrung Hub. Mirrung means "belonging" in the Dharug language.

The contingent included NCOSS Project Director, Olivia Wright, and the Ashcroft Public School executive team, Principal Poppy Loueizi, Deputy Principal, Karen Ali, and Deputy Principal Wellbeing, Olivia Mackay. They were also joined by Nick Magriplis, Director Educational Leadership, Liverpool Principals Network.

Time spent on the road visiting other school hubs is a great way to learn about their place-based, holistic wellbeing approaches, and it was excellent to have the chance to connect with other leaders in this space!

We had a fantastic Forum of Non-Government Agencies (FONGA) meeting on 2 June, Chaired by our Director, School Gateway Project, Olivia Wright.

Kate Sinclair – a proud Dharug woman, who is Chair of Ngalaya Indigenous Corporation and a solicitor at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, where she is also leading PIAC’s participation in the campaign for the Voice – provided an information session on the Voice. You can see Kate's slide deck here.

We then had a panel discussion. Unfortunately, Co-chair of our RAP Partners and Advisors Group (PAG), Uncle Boe Rambaldini, couldn’t make it. However, Kate was joined by Karlie Stewart and it was great to hear two young First Nation's women give us their thoughtful perspectives.

Karlie – our RAP artist – is a Wandi Wandian woman and a member of our PAG and the NCOSS Board. She also manages the Aboriginal Healing Program at Weave Youth and Community Services and lectures in social work at the University of Wollongong.

As usual, our very active FONGA members shared a wealth of information and ideas. Yumi Lee, CEO at Older Women’s Network NSW, shared their recent research, Very Expensive on a Very Limited Income – Older Women’s Perspectives on Telehealth and provided a link to Dan Palotta’s intriguing TED Talk The way we think about charity is dead wrong! Margaret Tipper, CEO of WESTIR, drew our attention to the release of the recently released 2023 Per Capita Australian Inequality Index, while Claudia Lennon, NSW State Director of 54 Reasons, shared their April 2023 report Putting children first: A rights respecting approach to youth justice in Australia.

Many thanks to all who attended and participated.

The next FONGA will be on 4 August 2023. Save the date.

There was broad coverage in both the metropolitan and regional press of warnings by NCOSS and other advocacy organisations about provisions in the Fair Rental Bill that could spark silent auctions for rental properties. These are provisions that would require all applicants for a property to be told if another prospective tenant offered more than the advertised rent.

Here's the coverage as published by the Newcastle Herald.

"Designed to help level the playing field for tenants and prevent rents spiralling, a ban on secret rent bidding would spark legal rental auctions and further push up prices, a NSW inquiry into the proposal heard late last week…

"The NSW Tenant's Union, Homelessness NSW and the NSW Council of Social Service warned the proposal to ban secret rent bidding would make the situation worse by ‘encouraging a transparent, regulated rental auction process.'"

Read the full Newcastle Herald article here.

Read our submission to the Legislative Council on the Fair Rental Bill here.
Read our joint media release with the Tenant's Union and Shelter NSW here.

Image by Flavio Brancaleone (AAP), seen on ABC News.

"We’re calling on the NSW Government to step up to the plate and protect services for the most vulnerable in the state at the time they are needed most," said NCOSS Acting CEO, Ben McAlpine.

"The NSW social service sector goes above and beyond to support vulnerable individuals, families and communities and we absolutely welcome better pay for sector’s female dominated workforce which, for too long, has been undervalued…

"The historic failure of previous governments to pass on adequate indexation has meant that, in real terms, funding for frontline services has been eroded over time. We are calling on NSW Treasurer, the Hon Daniel Mookhey, to make sure that this does not continue under his watch.

"With inflation at record highs, we need indexation to keep pace with the real costs of providing services, so the sector doesn’t continue to go backwards."

Read our full media release here.

"Without commenting on the specifics of any matters, some of which are before the courts, in 2022, NSW Police recorded 33,410 domestic violence-related assault incidents. But we know this problem is far greater.

"In 2020, the NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS) estimated that reports to police only represent 40 per cent of actual incidents of domestic violence due to underreporting."

Read the whole opinion piece by Jodie Harrison MP, Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, in the Daily Telegraph.

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.

No one leaves home unless I home is the mouth of a shark. You only run for the border / when you see the whole city / running as well
Warsan Shire

Refugee Week 2023 runs 18 - 24 June, with the theme of Finding Freedom. World Refugee Day is 20 June 2023.

"What does it mean to be free?

"To live without the fear of war, to have your basic human rights upheld, to live in equality and without the fear of persecution are just some of the examples of what freedom can entail. Every day millions of people across the world embark on dangerous journeys for the sole purpose of finding safety and freedom. From Australia to nations across the globe, settling into a new environment after experiencing the perils of a refugee’s journey can also provide the opportunity to live, to love and to dream." (See Refugee Week Australia's website.)

Read what freedom means to refugees settled in Australia here.
Check out Refugee Week events on the events calendar.

Image credit: Muzafar Ali

The Wesley Mission has recently commissioned independent research into community views on pokies harm. Here are some of the revealing stats:

75.9% say poker machines are bad and require further legislation
69.8% think the NSW Government is not doing enough for gambling reform
31.2% have a colleague, family member or friend harmed by pokies
56.7% think the new government should abandon plans for a cashless trial of 500 machines and commit to a mandatory cashless gambling card.
65.9% believe the gambling lobby has too much influence on NSW politics
64.7% don't trust the government to stand up to the gambling industry
67.3% are more likely to visit clubs without pokies.

Sign up here to help take a stand for poker machine reform in NSW.

Spread the message on social media, using short videos from their activist toolkit:

Trigger warning for Australia’s most dangerous sound (15 seconds)

Pokies target our most vulnerable. What does NSW really think? (15 seconds)

70% believe more should be done to reform addictive pokies (6 seconds)

Imagine a machine so addictive its sound can cause relapses (6 seconds)

Together for Good: Accelerating a fair, just and inclusive Australian society
Social Impact Summit
Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 July, UTS Sydney

We’re passionate about inspiring, informing and equipping the current and next generation of leaders to make long-term, positive and sustainable impact on people and communities. This is not a talkfest – the purpose is to develop a range of actionable solutions that help change society in measurable and meaningful ways. An executive report will be prepared following the Social Impact Summit and shared with all attendees, government and industry stakeholders to drive change.

Last chance ticket price $795 (+GST). This is a saving of $455. Ticket purchase includes both days of the Summit and network event on Day 1. For more details and to register click here.

ACWA
Save the Date
Tuesday 4 July I 10:00am - 12.30pm

ACWA is hosting a forum on the landmark findings of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.

This is a fantastic opportunity for policy researchers and practitioners to hear directly from principal author, Professor Ben Mathews, and other expert guest speakers, what the ‘gold standard science’ is telling us about child maltreatment in Australia.

We are delighted that the Minister for Families and Communities, the Hon Kate Washington MP, will open the forum, which will be held in Sydney. Venue and program details to follow.

Register now to ensure your spot.

AASW
The Voice to Parliament and The Road Ahead
Tuesday 4 July 7pm, Online

AASW presents a live webinar with Professor Tom Calma AO, Senior Australian of the Year 2023 and co-author of the key report underpinning the Voice to Parliament proposal.

In celebration of NAIDOC Week, this will be an unmissable opportunity to hear from the man who is both a social worker and co-author of the key report.

Free for AASW members, $25 for non members.

Register here: The Voice To Parliament and the Road Ahead with Professor Tom Calma AO | AASW

Photo by Salty Dingo

National Housing Conference: A Way Forward
Brisbane
10-12 October
Early bird discounted rate available for registrations completed by 30 June

Registration for National Housing Conference: A way forward (NHC) is now open – with Early Bird discounted rate available for registrations completed by 30 June.

Convened every two years by AHURI, NHC is a 3-day forum where international and local evidence, best practice and policy come together to address challenges and develop the future shape of housing in Australia. NHC is the largest cross-sectoral housing event in Australasia and is a key platform for policy makers, housing and community service providers, researchers, planners and private industry to shape improved housing outcomes across Australia.

This year’s conference, NHC23, will be held in Brisbane on 10-12th October, supported by the Queensland Government. Registration is available for both individuals and groups as in-person, virtual and one-day-only registration options.

For more information, and to register, visit here.

Housing First train-the-trainer training
Homelessness Australia
Call for EOIs from advanced Housing First Practitioners
14 August-23 September 2023 (online training)

Homelessness Australia is seeking expressions of interest from advanced Housing First practitioners, to participate in Housing First train-the-trainer training. Following training, participants would become active Housing First trainers.

Practitioners will participate in 6 days of free online training from 14 August - 23 September 2023, followed by a 3-4 day onsite Masterclass early in 2024 on the Gold Coast with a leading Housing First Europe trainer. The costs of the training, accommodation and travel will be met by the program.

Following the training program, practitioners are required to pass on their knowledge.
If you are interested in participating in this exciting training opportunity, please review the Expression of Interest and application form available on the website here. For more information contact the lead trainer in your region available on the website.

Applications close at 8.30am on this Friday, 16 June 2023.

Board Inductions for Not-For-Profits

Justice Connect - Not-For-Profit-Law
18 July 2023, by Zoom

Whether you’re a new board member or you’ve been doing it for a while, there’s always more to learn. What does it mean to be a board member? What are your key legal responsibilities? When are you personally responsible if things go wrong and what protections are available?

In our popular Board Inductions webinar, we’ll help answer these questions and give you the foundations you need for good governance.

Register here.

Trauma Informed Care

AbSec
24 - 23 July 2023, by Zoom

This interactive short course aims to equip workers with basic skills, knowledge, understanding, approaches and strategies to work effectively with survivors of past and current/ongoing trauma. In particular, this course will explore the way that complex trauma, caused by early childhood abuse and neglect, impacts survivors and outlines a number of principles and approaches for working in a trauma-informed way with children and families.

Additionally, there is a focus on understanding and responding to Aboriginal intergenerational trauma using both mainstream and traditional Aboriginal healing methods to optimise worker practice.

Register here.

Carers NSW Australia
Grants to celebrate National Carers Week 2023

National Carers Week Grants have returned in 2023 thanks to ongoing funding from the NSW Government Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ).

National Carers Week will be held from 15 - 21 October 2023. Grants are available for carer support groups and organisations from across NSW to celebrate and recognise the contribution of family and friend carers in their local communities by holding local events and activities.

If you are a community group or organisation that supports carers, you may be eligible to apply for a grant to celebrate National Carers Week 2023.

Applications will close at 5.00pm on Monday, 26 June 2023. You can find the application form here.

WayAhead
Mental Health Month Grants

2023 Grants are now open until June 30.

Each year WayAhead provides more than 50 small grants to community groups and organisations across NSW to help get your Mental Health Month project or event off the ground.

A Mental Health Month project or event is a great way to encourage awareness of mental health, and social and emotional wellbeing in your community. It can decrease stigma, and empower people to seek help, for themselves or others.

We provide approximately 50 grants of either $500 or $10,00 across the following categories: General, Youth, LGBTQIA, CALD, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. More details are here

Aged Care Advocates – Seniors Rights Service – VIEW JOB (Western Sydney); VIEW JOB (Newcastle)

Rural and Regional Youth Worker (Coffs Harbour) – STARTTS – VIEW JOB

Community Health Promotion Officer – First Nations Health Programs (Sydney or the Hunter) – ACON – VIEW JOB

Administrative Information and Referral Officer (Western Sydney) – Women's Legal Service NSW – VIEW JOB

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Manager (Sydney CBD) – LGBTIQ+ Health Australia – VIEW JOB

Coordinator, Peer Partnership Program (Inner City Sydney) – Hepatitis NSW – VIEW JOB