Australia must urgently implement all recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal
Deaths in Custody.126
Police responses to family violence need urgent reform. Survivors of family violence experience police duty
failures, including misidentifying victims as perpetrators, privacy breaches and failing to provide effective
protection.127
Australia must address police duty failures and improve responses in order to enhance the safety of
victims / survivors when requesting police assistance for family violence, 128 and to prevent the
criminalisation of survivors129 as a consequence of police responses.
POVERTY
3.2 million people, including 774,000 children live, below the poverty line in Australia.130 Australia ranks 16th
out of 26 OECD countries, despite high national and household wealth. 131 Poverty is most acute for people
who are not in paid work and rely on social security. 132 Poverty among sole parent families is high, at 32% in
2015-16.133
Australia must permanently increase allowance payments so that people can afford the basics, and
index to wage inflation.
Allowance payment rates and indexation methods are not currently benchmarked to adequacy.
Australia must also establish a Social Security Commission to advise Government on payment rates,
including indexation.
Cashless debit and income management schemes have expanded in recent years despite their
discriminatory impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and single mothers, their restriction
on individual decision making, and weak evidence of effectiveness. 134
Australia must replace compulsory cashless debit and income management schemes with voluntary
models which are non-discriminatory in design and implementation.
Australia’s unlawful automated debt collection process – robodebt - has undermined the right to social
security and severely impacted the people on whom it has been imposed, especially women. 135
Australia must end all automated debt collection processes based on flawed debt calculation
methods and refund anyone who has repaid a robodebt.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Since the last UPR, homelessness has further increased (particularly among Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples136 and older women137), housing affordability has not improved,138 and social housing stock
has continued to decline.139 The previous national homelessness strategy140 has not been replaced, and
there is no national plan to reduce homelessness or housing stress. Funding for the National Rental
Affordability Scheme will be discontinued. Government payments assisting renters on low incomes are
inadequate, leaving nearly half of renters on low incomes in urban areas in rental stress. 141
Australia must develop a national homelessness and affordable housing strategy, with goals and
targets underpinned by substantial funding in services, stock and support. Australia must also
increase investment in new social housing that meets diverse housing needs.
The national inter-governmental funding agreement on remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing
has expired, and federal funding for remote housing has been withdrawn in many states.
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