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On July 6, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, issued a landmark judgment on diplomatic immunity and human trafficking, in the case of Basfar v Wong [2022] UKSC 20. The judgment of the Court, delivered by a majority of 3-2, limits diplomatic immunity in cases involving human trafficking, servitude or other forms of modern slavery.

The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Siobhan Mullaly, noted that  “This is a hugely important judgment, and is likely to influence state practice and international law developments on diplomatic immunities and the protection of migrant domestic workers world-wide. Until now, the dominant interpretation of international law tilted the balance of power in favour of a serving diplomat, even in the face of egregious human rights violations. This has now changed.”

Read the full statement here

Read more about domestic servitude in Australia here

Domestic Violence is a key driver of homelessness for women, with many women forced to live in poverty when they leave a violent relationship. A new report by Anne Summers AO PhD, A report into domestic violence and its consequences in Australia today, provides disturbing information about the untenable choices women face in a violent relationship: Stay in a violent relationship or leave and live in poverty.

In 2016,

• 275,000 Australian women had suffered physical and/or sexual violence from a current partner.  90,000 women wanted to leave, however they felt unable to do so, with a quarter of them saying the main reason was lack of money or financial support.
• A further 82,000 temporarily separated but returned again. Fifteen per cent of them said that  they had no money or nowhere to go.
• An estimated 185,700 women who had experienced violence by a previous partner were living as single mothers with children under 18 years of age.
  • 75% left behind property or assets
  • 60% were working, however their earnings were insufficient to support themselves and their children and they experienced considerable financial stress
  • 50% relied on government benefits as their main source of income
• Single mothers relying on the Parenting Payment are forced to go onto JobSeeker when their youngest child turns 8. JobSeeker is the second lowest unemployment benefit in the OECD, after Greece.

In the recommendations, Anne argues that

• the Parenting Payment must be available to all single parents until their child is 16 years or leaves high school
• the Parenting Payment must be raised to match the age pension rate (currently 66% of the pension)

“Government policy, through the current National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010–2022,8 is ostensibly to encourage and support women to leave violent relationships. But government policy, through payments policy and other welfare measures, ensures that as many as half the women who choose to leave will end up in poverty. These two arms of government policy are in direct conflict with each other when it comes to tackling domestic violence. The government may not be able to immediately stop domestic violence, but it could stop poverty. It chooses not to.”

The full report can be accessed here.

Summers, A. (2022). The Choice: Violence or Poverty. University of Technology Sydney. https://doi.org/10.26195/3s1r-4977)

A recently released Working Paper by Professor Hal Pawson and David Lilley from UNSW City Futures Research Centre, Managing Access to Social Housing in Australia: Unpacking policy frameworks and service provision outcomes, highlights some sobering statistics and information about social housing in Australia. A few points from the Executive Summary:

• In 2020-2021, less than 30,000 applicants were granted a social housing tenancy in Australia, compared to 52,000 in 1991.
• The national population is now 41% higher than in 1996, yet social housing has expanded by 3% over that period.
• From 2018 – 2021, social housing wait list numbered grew by 16% to 164,000 households, and the annual number of greatest-need applications grew by 48%
• The large cohort of applicants newly registering for social housing each year is accompanied by substantial numbers exiting lists without being allocated a social housing tenancy.
• Some states have not changed income limits for social housing, effectively tightening the eligibility criteria over time.
• Between the states there significant variations in waiting list eligibility.

To find out more about the policies and quantitative data associated with the management of social housing in Australia, the Working Paper can be downloaded here.

An article about the report in The Conversation can be read here.

Our June update provides information about our work with the UN, recent grant recipients for both the Social Justice Small Grants program and the Grants to End Homelessness program, and a good news from recently funded projects. Read the update here.

Women sleeping rough: The health, social and economic costs of homelessness is the first study to investigate the health outcomes of women sleeping rough and its associate costs. The self-report survey data was collected over a seven-year period in Australian cities by NGOs supporting those experiencing homelessness. This study provides one of the largest samples of women sleeping rough as well as experiencing other forms of homelessness.

Women were surveyed using the VI-SPDAT tool during Connections/Registry Weeks, whilst others were surveyed by homelessness services.

“The report compares the demographics, history and type of homelessness, physical and mental health conditions and service utilisation. This study not only demonstrates that women sleeping rough differ demographically to both men sleeping rough and women not sleeping rough but that they are at higher risk of poorer physical and mental health outcomes and higher levels violence and exploitation on the streets. Of concern is that the conditions experienced by women sleeping rough are among the leading causes of poor health and mortality.”

The study highlighted that women sleeping rough are particularly vulnerable to morbidity and early mortality. This in turn translated to high service utilisation. The development of housing and support strategies targeted to the needs of women sleeping rough will not only provide cost savings to the health sector, but more importantly, provide a safe and secure home and positive life outcomes for the women involved.

The Mercy Youth Awards are now open! High School students across Australia are invited to participate in the awards. The topic is Caring for our Environment. Students are asked to create a visual representation, like a cartoon, artwork, collage or photo, that shows the everyday actions that you can take to help address climate change; students are also asked to answer a quiz on climate change.

Entries close on 5 August 2022.

Find out more about the Mercy Youth Awards.

Today, Anglicare Australia released their Rental Affordability Snapshot that shows the housing crisis is worse than ever.

Of 45,992 rental listings across Australia:

• 720 rentals (2%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage
• 312 rentals (1%) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension
• 51 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
• 7 rentals, (0%) all share houses, were affordable for a person on JobSeeker
• 1 share house (0%) was affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.

Action must be two fold:

• Significantly boost the social and affordable housing supply; we currently need 500,000 new social and affordable rentals across Australia
• Boost the Jobkeeper rate to $70 per day, to ensure people can cover the basics needed to live on.

The full report can be read here.

Compared to 2021, the supply of properties available to rent has significantly tightened by 38%, dropping from 74,226 to 45,992 properties, being a record low. The vacancy rate has halved from 2% to 1%.

This means that people on low incomes are competing with others on higher, more stable incomes to find a home. With rising inflation and stagnant wages, the outlook is dire for families and individuals living on low incomes.

We all have the right to a safe and affordable home. Unaffordable rent is a great burden on families and individuals trying to get by on low incomes. The massive shortfall in supply is pushing people into homelessness and leaving others perilously close to falling into homelessness.

All parties and candidates in the upcoming Federal Election must address this critical issue.

 

The Australian Government has now ratified the most contemporary international labour standard to address forced labour.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Protocol of 2014 to Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No. 29) (the Protocol) and Australia communicated its formal ratification to the Director-General of the ILO in Geneva for registration.

The Protocol contains provisions to further tackle the complexities of modern slavery and to address the root causes of forced labour, with obligations to:

• prevent and suppress forced labour,
• protect victims and provide access to appropriate and effective remedies, and
• penalise the perpetrators of forced labour and end their impunity.

By ratifying this Protocol, the Australian Government should commit to the establishment of a national compensation scheme to assist victim-survivors in rebuilding their lives.

Read the press release

Mercy Foundation asks International Body to find that Australia is violating human rights to housing, an adequate standard of living, and non-discrimination and equality.

On March 9^th, the Mercy Foundation appeared before the United Nation’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  The Committee oversees Australia’s progress in realising economic, social and cultural rights, which under international law, it has agreed to respect, protect and fulfil.  These rights include the right to housing, non-discrimination and equality, and an adequate standard of living, among others.

Dr Jessie Hohmann, an internationally recognised expert on the right to housing in international law, assisted the Mercy Foundation in this process.

Economic, social and cultural rights give people dignity and insist that each person is entitled to the goods that make it possible for life to be fulfilling and dignified: safe housing, enough nutritious food, access to health care, and adequate pay for their work, for example.  As rights, they give equal moral worth to people, and insist that material supports are not merely a question of charity, but of humanity.

The Mercy Foundation brought to the Committee’s attention that Australia is failing to make progress toward fulfilling these rights.  Instead, Australia is, in many areas, moving away from ensuring people’s rights.  Over the last few decades, Australia has become an increasingly unequal country, leading to retrogression (or backward steps) in the enjoyment of economic and social rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  Wages have not kept up with the cost of living, social supports are inadequate and there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing.  For example, income support has not risen, in real terms, in 25 years.  These background conditions are leading to a housing crisis.  Homelessness is rising.  The price of housing is some of the highest in the world and rentals are increasingly unaffordable. The percentage of social housing has fallen, and there are very long waiting lists to access it, sometimes up to 10 years.  Many people are insecure in their housing, worrying about whether they can keep up with rental or mortgage payments, and where they will go if they can’t.  Older women, and women and children subjected to domestic and family violence, are the fastest growing cohorts experiencing homelessness.

In appearing before the Committee, the Mercy Foundation pointed out that Australia’s lack of progress on realising these rights rests on policy choices, not political, economic or logistical inability.

The Committee asked searching questions about why Australia was not already fulfilling these rights for everyone.  This is a question it will reiterate when the Australian government appears before it in the current United Nations Session.

Australia has the capacity to ensure these rights for all, not just for those already better off.  The Mercy Foundation was honoured to appear before the Committee as part of the United Nations Treaty Process, to advance an agenda of social justice, an end to homelessness, and an adequate standard of living for everyone.

The full text of the Mercy Foundation’s submissions to the Committee can be found here: https://bit.ly/3q78WX8

 Contact:

Sue Mowbray, CEO Mercy Foundation sue.mowbray@mercyfoundation.com.au

Dr Jessie Hohmann, UTS Jessie.Hohmann@uts.edu.auUpho