Minister Rishworth Adelaide doorstop

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

Topics: Youth Volunteering Campaign; volunteering; housing; Dutton's housing plan; NDIS fraud; ACT election outcome; capital gains tax.

LOUISE MILLER-FROST, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: Well, thanks for coming down here to Glenelg beach, to the Surf Life Saving Club. My name is Louise Miller-Frost, I'm the federal member for Boothby. This is part of my beautiful electorate, and we've got a fantastic day here today. I'm really thrilled to have Minister Amanda Rishworth here, and also Jacob and Allira from the Young Volunteers Campaign. They're Ambassadors, and they've been telling us about the value of volunteering for young people. We know that volunteering is so important for our communities, whether it's emergency services like the Surf Life Saving Club behind me, Country Fire Service, SES, St John's Ambulance, or local sporting clubs, local environment clubs, wildlife clubs, schools, hospitals. There's so much opportunity and all of those volunteers really make our community so much stronger and better, both in terms of the services they're providing, but more importantly, the connections that they're making for themselves and to the broader community. So I'm really thrilled to be here for this particular announcement I'm going to hand over to the Minister. Thanks.

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, today we are launching out our Hanging out to help out campaign. This is a national campaign looking at how we encourage young people in particular to have a second look at volunteering. Volunteering is critical to our community. It aids in so many ways. It's about helping people. It's about improving our physical environment, and it's making our communities more cohesive and more special. Of course, we've seen over recent years that, particularly during the COVID pandemic, a real rupture in the volunteering ecosystem. And while since the pandemic, we're starting to see a recovery of the numbers of volunteers, we haven't seen those numbers recover to pre-pandemic levels. This is particularly in the case of young people formally volunteering. So our Hanging out to help campaign is getting really the message across that volunteering is something worth considering for young people. The research for this campaign has showed that while young people are very positive about volunteering, that there is a low level of awareness it's something they can participate in. Indeed, this campaign is also about busting some of the misconceptions about volunteering, and that includes that volunteering just for older people, or they might not have enough time. And finally, this campaign is about demonstrating the positive benefits that volunteering can have for young people, positive benefits about being able to meet new people, hang out with friends and also build lifelong skills. And so these are some of the areas or the issues that our new campaign seeks to and seeks to address. Now this campaign will be predominantly being run where young people are at. It'll be run on digital platforms, social media, YouTube, right across digital platforms, making sure that we're connecting in the places young people are connected. But I'm really, really pleased to have a number of our ambassadors here to talk about their experience of volunteering, and also their experience of what volunteering can bring. So first, I'd love to introduce Jacob to talk about some of the positive benefits of volunteering as a young person that he has experienced.

JACOB, CAMPAIGN AMBASSADOR: I'm a young volunteer for St John Ambulance, and the main positive experience I've had is I've met some of my best friends with volunteering and lifelong friends, volunteering is super social, and you have so much fun while volunteering so all young people should get out and volunteer. You also grow your leadership skills and your confidence skills, which will allow for you to help in all parts of your life, whether that be at work, art school, or at university. Skills gained in volunteering just stick with you for life, and they'll really help you throughout your life. Volunteering is also super empowering for young people. As a volunteer, we are judged for our skills, not for our age, whereas in other areas, we judged for our age. As a volunteer, we're able to get out and help regardless how old you are, which is why it's really special. Overall, as a young person, it's just a super fun place to come out and hang out while getting some good skills and getting back.

ALLIRA, CAMPAIGN AMBASSADOR: My name is Allira. I'm one of the campaign ambassadors, and I think, from my point of view, this whole campaign is just driving awareness for young people to understand the volunteering has such a positive impact of their well being, and it also has a positive impact on their mental health overall. So, I'm really excited to be part of this campaign.

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Were there any questions on the campaign?

JOURNALIST: Comments from Peter Dutton that he would invest millions if not billions into housing. What do you say to that?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well look this is a reheated policy by Peter Dutton. We are already investing in infrastructure, enabling housing. The Government has got a $32 billion Homes for Australia plan, and part of that is investing in infrastructure to enable building similar to what Peter Dutton has announced today. So it's not really clear what extra he is announcing. But what is clear is his silence on the $19 billion he plans to cut when it comes to housing. He has been clear that he wants to cut the Housing Australia Future Fund that is building houses right now. He, in the Senate is blocking our Help to Buy scheme, which is helping people get their foot into the housing market to encourage home ownership. So quite frankly, Peter Dutton has not provided the details, but our government is investing significantly. A vote for Peter Dutton when it comes to housing is about cutting housing supply and slowing down housing building.

JOURNALIST: Will you make more housing promises lead up to election?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well our Homes for Australia plan is a $32 billion investment. It involves funding to build the infrastructure needed to build more homes. It is funding, for example, our Housing Australia Future Fund, which is about building more social and affordable housing. It is about putting legislation to ensure that we have a Help to Buy scheme to help people into home ownership. We have our Build to Rent scheme that is about building more rental accommodation. Across the board, we are investing billions of dollars into housing to reach our target of building homes for Australia. Peter Dutton's thought bubble is really just announcing what we're already doing. He has no plans for actually building more homes in Australia, getting housing on the ground, but we will continue to ensure that our plan, which is delivering housing now, continues to be delivered.

JOURNALIST: A couple questions for you. NDIS fraud is under the microscope this morning, with investigators stopping $74 million worth of repayments reaching crooks in four months. This is a major issue, isn't it?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Tackling fraud in the NDIS has been a key issue that our Government has taken on since we've come into Government. Minister Shorten has been very clear that there is no place for frauds and rip off within the NDIS. We have been making systematic work to ensure that a range of systems are put in place to stop fraud. This is an important outcome, recognising the millions of dollars that have stopped when it comes to fraud. But we will continue to work to ensure that anyone looking to defraud the NDIS system will be caught. We need to be clear, the NDIS is such a critical support system for so many people living with a disability, and it is an insult to them that these people feel like they are able to defraud the system. So we will continue to make improvements, but it shows that the work being done by our Fraud Fusion Taskforce, the work being done to strengthen systems within the NDIS is working and will keep working to ensure that money going to the NDIS gets to people that need it, and that's people living with disability.

JOURNALIST: Labor has won the ACT election. What's your reaction?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: I'd like to just congratulate Andrew Barr, the Chief Minister of the ACT. Their Government has been returned. That is a great outcome for him. I just would like to say on a personal note, I've worked very constructively with the ACT government on a number of areas that interact with my portfolio, and I very much look forward to continuing to work with them to deliver reforms in terms of family and domestic sexual violence, in areas such as disability reform and enacting many of the recommendations in the Royal Commission of Neglect and Abuse of People with Disabilities. So congratulations to them, and I look forward to working with them.

JOURNALIST: Final question. Are negative gearing and capital gains tax changes still on the Labor's radar?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, I think the Treasurer, the Prime Minister, and many ministers have been very clear that negative gearing and capital gains tax changes are not part of Labor's plan when it comes to housing. We've got an ambitious plan for housing. We have got an ambitious plan to build houses, to build houses for people to buy, to build houses for people to rent, to build social and affordable housing, to unlock the infrastructure that is needed to build those homes. We've got a really big plan on the table. Compare that with the Liberal party that's announced work that is already underway by this government that hasn't really been clear where they're getting the extra money from, how it's actually going to be delivered. Compare that to the work happening on the ground now, with work states and territories delivering housing. I'm proud of that work, and we will keep delivering.

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