WHEN news of the shocking attack at the Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s Bondi Junction came through at around 3.30pm last Saturday, many of us asked the question ‘why’?
Was it terrorism related after statements in the previous few hours that an escalation in the Middle East was imminent, and random targets might be affected?
We now know that it’s a local incident and that mental health problems, homelessness and family breakdown are some of the issues involved.
Sydney is a long way from here, and living outside the big population centres, we feel relatively safe in the country but all three of those issues; mental health, homelessness and family breakdown, are constantly quoted when people come before the courts for a range of offences from family violence to criminal damage, and from assaults to thefts and other more serious crime.
Drug use and alcohol abuse are other themes.
More needs to be done locally to address mental health problems and issues associated with family breakdown need much more attention.
But anyone who has ever experienced homelessness, or the prospect of losing their present accommodation, will tell you how much it can make all of the other issues they have to contend with much, much worse.
Everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads, or at least the opportunity to find accommodation when needed.
Right now that’s not the case and we are seeing many serious problems shaking out as a result.
In November last year, just before the previous Premier announced he was stepping down, the Victorian Government announced that it would, and we quote “deliver 80,000 new homes each year across the state” in the decade between 2024 and 2034.
That’s “every year” for the next decade, not 800,000 homes by the end of the decade.
So, how are we going in 2024?
Locally, the Bass Coast Shire Council received $25 million from the State Government in November 2020 for public and community housing. How many houses have been built under the scheme so far?
Make no mistake, housing matters, and it’s time the authorities, local, state and federal were brought to account.
