Influence 3

Create change that benefits people who are otherwise disadvantaged and ensure government policies, laws and investment do not cause or perpetuate disadvantage

Almost 65 years ago, we were founded to create positive change for Queenslanders experiencing disadvantage by ensuring that government policies, laws and investments help all of us. This election year, these founding principles are still the core of what we do.

The Town of Nowhere campaign brings together a coalition of community organisations and everyday Queenslanders dedicated to ending our state’s housing crisis

During 2023-24, more than 300,000 Queenslanders reportedly had unmet housing needs. They are either homeless or paying more than 30% of their income in rent. This year, the Town of Nowhere campaign started to shift the dial for these Queenslanders.

After years of sustained campaigning, in 2023-24 we successfully achieved the following advocacy objectives:

a long-term Queensland Government housing plan: Homes for Queenslanders
a 20 per cent increase into specialist homelessness services funding as part of a $390 million package
a commitment to 2,000 plus new social housing homes per year in accordance to modelling by Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)
a commitment to making bond management fairer including introducing a portable bond scheme, ending rent bidding, making it easier for renters to undertake minor modifications, introducing a rental code of conduct, and improving privacy protections for renters
a commitment to building eight new youth foyers around Queensland
a pledge from the Liberal National Party to match the Labor Government’s social housing commitments should they be elected.

Breaking Ground report:
a progress update and assessment of Queensland's housing crisis

On 3 June, we released "Breaking Ground: a progress update and assessment of Queensland's housing crisis"; the follow up to the landmark Pawson report.

"Breaking Ground" acknowledges that with the Homes for Queenslanders plan, the Queensland Government has become the first Australian government since 1945 to match social housing commitments to modelled demand.

The report ran in more than 115 media stories and was cited by Queensland Premier Steven Miles in a speech.

Breaking Ground report launch
(L to R): Kevin Mercer (St Vincent de Paul Brisbane), Prof. Hal Pawson (Report Lead), Sue Pope (Common Ground), Fiona Dunn (Footprints), Jody Willoughby (Uniting Care Queensland), Andrew Clarke (Report Researcher), Aimee McVeigh (QCOSS), Michelle Royes (DVConnect), Christopher John (YFS Logan), Pam Barker (Brisbane Youth Service), Carmel Haugh (Brisbane Zero), Bronwen Kippen (QCOSS)

Raising the age
of criminal responsibility
in Queensland

The Queensland Raise the Age campaign urges the Queensland Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age.

Queensland has the highest number of detained children in Australia, with nearly half of the children under 14 in detention Australia-wide located in Queensland. Of these children, 72 per cent are First Nations children.

Throughout 2023-24, the campaign made progress building public awareness, mobilising the community services sector, partnering with key advocacy organisations and working with the Queensland Government to begin designing an alternative to the justice system as the path to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

In response to Raise the Age advocacy, the Queensland Government has committed to working with QCOSS and the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) to ensure all efforts are made to divert children under the age of 14 away from the justice system. To achieve this, QCOSS, QATSICPP, Raise the Age partners and the Department of Youth Justice commenced development of a pilot program in one community to provide holistic, evidence-based therapeutic support for 10 to 13-year-olds who might otherwise enter the youth justice system.

QCOSS will also support ongoing improvements to administrative process to reduce the number of children in custody.

As the state transitions to renewables, ensure Queenslanders on low incomes can access the energy they need for the lowest possible price as part of a just transition

While access to energy services is a basic human need, many households struggle to afford the cost of energy, understand their energy use and navigate energy matters. This is particularly true for low income and vulnerable households.

Increasingly, community service organisations are helping low-income households navigate complex information so they can access energy concessions and navigate energy hardship programs.

QCOSS developed submissions for the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill 2023 and the Cheaper Power (Supplementary Appropriation) Bill 2024.

The Charge Up! project, funded by the Department of Energy and Climate through the Enable Grants Program in March 2024, is an initiative of QCOSS and Neighbourhood Centres Queensland. The project aims to help households understand their energy use, and to support the community services sector to ensure this information reaches Queensland’s most vulnerable households.

Ensure the Queensland community services sector engages effectively in the review of the Queensland Human Rights Act, due to commence as soon as possible after 1 July 2023

The Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 (the Act) commenced in full on 1 January 2020. Section 95 of the Act requires that the legislation be reviewed by an independent, appropriately qualified person as soon as practicable after 1 July 2023. This review is currently underway and is expected to report during the second half of 2024.

QCOSS supported the Community Service sector to engage with the review by hosting the event Engaging with the Human Rights Act Review with the Independent Reviewer Professor Susan Harris Rimmer. A total of 397 people registered to attend. As well as consulting with our members to prepare QCOSS’ submission containing ten recommendations, we created a submission template with guidance on how to engage with the review.

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh with Professor Susan Harris Rimmer

Power Together is an alliance of QCOSS and other advocacy organisations who want to re-imagine and unlock the powers of renewable energy to reduce cost of living pressures for all Queenslanders, forever. This year, because of the campaign’s advocacy:

Nation-leading $1,000 rebates will be applied to the power bills of every household power bill in Queensland, following the passing of the Cheaper Power Bill 2024. Combined with the $300 rebates announced in the federal Budget by the Australian Government, every Queensland household will now receive $1,300 off power bills from July. Vulnerable households will receive $1672. Continuing energy bill relief was a key ask from the QCOSS Reduce the cost-of-living budget paper. This ask is in partnership with the Power Together Alliance.
During the QCOSS/The Courier Mail Make Queensland Fair leaders debate, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli committed to a “Solar for Renters” scheme. This scheme is a key ask of the Power Together Alliance.

Commence implementation of a Queensland state election strategy that will secure wins related to our impact area priorities

Deliver a Living Affordability Report by July 2024 that provides clear evidence of the budget position of low-income households in Queensland

The QCOSS annual Living Affordability in Queensland report aims to determine whether low-income households in Queensland can afford a basic standard of living.

The 2023 report identified cost-of-living pressures associated with increasing accommodation prices as well as the cost of essential goods and services such as healthy food, energy, healthcare, transport and digital communications.

Among the modelled households, only one was able to meet basic living costs while the others were either in debt or failing to make ends meet.

Queensland’s Courier Mail launched the “In the Red Campaign” following the release of the QCOSS report, highlighting how the cost-of-living crisis affected low-income families. The campaign ran its digital platform and other newspapers across Queensland.

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh appeared on the Nine Network’s Today show, ABC News Breakfast and Sky News programs during their peak ratings periods (each program reaches over 100,000 viewers each morning). Ms McVeigh was also interviewed on several Queensland-wide radio programs with audiences in the thousands. The report led to several breakout stories over the following weeks, viewed by tens of thousands of Queenslanders.

At the end of 2023, QCOSS alongside a coalition of 13 community service sector organisations concerned about Queensland’s cost-of-living crisis, launched the Make Queensland Fair campaign.

In the past few years, these organisations have been experiencing unprecedented levels of demand for food, housing and cost-of-living relief, often from Queenslanders who have never needed help before. In a state like Queensland, which last year recorded the highest budget surplus of any Australian state or territory, ever, this is unfathomable.

In March 2024, the campaign partnered with The Courier Mail to host a leadership debate between the Premier and Leader of the Opposition.

At the debate, Premier Steven Miles promised that any Queenslander experiencing homelessness would be housed in emergency accommodation, while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli pledged to support the solar for renters scheme.

Additionally, the campaign has won the following for Queenslanders:

Energy rebates
Cheaper public transport and car registration
Millions of dollars in food relief
An historic commitment to new social and affordable housing builds
Improved community service sector contract provisions
Increased funding for services
$500 million towards family and children support.

Engage with the Queensland State Budget, ensuring the investment priorities of the community services sector are well communicated, the capacity of the sector to engage in the process is enhanced and outcomes understood and celebrated

This year, to ensure our budget and election asks were as informed, impartial and useful as possible we completed two Town Hall tours, consulted with our networks and put a call out to our members for feedback about our submissions.

Additionally, to help the community service sector understand how budget decisions are made and how our sector’s submissions could help to make them better, we hosted: In Conversation with Under Treasurer Michael Carey in March and had over 100 registrants.

Across the state, we heard that the demand for community sector services was increasing in size and complexity, while at the same time it was becoming more difficult to attract people to the sector because of low wages and precarious employment conditions. Many of the problems we heard about last year: homelessness and unstable housing, cost-of-living issues, hunger, youth justice and domestic and family violence were still playing out in all regions.

With a state election looming, this year’s budget was a serious opportunity for the government and opposition to show how they would use Queensland’s money to address some of our state’s biggest social issues.

The result was our 2024-25 budget submission, where we asked government to:

Improve sustainability of the community services sector
End Queensland’s housing crisis
Reduce the cost of living
Give all children a good start
Invest in Queensland’s youth services
Advance women’s equality.

On 11 June 2023, the Queensland Government’s budget announcement included the following QCOSS/Sector asks:

Measures to improve the sustainability of the community services sector
- The announcement of a ‘Best Practice Industry Conditions for Social Services Procurement’ policy which features service agreements with default five-year initial terms.
- An increase of NGO indexation from 3.75 per cent to 3.94 per cent in 2024-25 representing an additional $5.05 million for the sector in 2024-25 and $21.4 million to 2026-27.
Funding to end Queensland’s housing crisis
$1.688 billion over five years and $130.4 million per annum ongoing towards funding housing and homelessness services and response initiatives outlined in the new Homes for Queenslanders Plan. This increases the total funding package for housing and homelessness services in the Homes for Queenslanders Plan to $3.1 billion over five years.
Cost of living reductions
A total of $11.218 billion in subsidies and concessions—an increase of 31.1 per cent from the previous budget and the highest increase on record—for 2024-25. This includes $3.739 billion in new and expanded measures in 2024–25 intended to provide cost-of-living relief.
Funding to give all children a good start
$500 million for the Putting Queensland Kids First plan.

Invest in Queensland’s youth services
$24 million over two years (held centrally) for targeted responses to emerging youth crime including the expansion of the On Country Program.
Advance Women’s Equality
The Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Strategy 2032 (QWGHS) is backed by $1 billion in investment over the next five years. This includes investment of $247.9 million over five years announced in the budget to drive women’s health reform.

We hosted our annual
Queensland Budget Breakfast
on 13 June 2024

The sold-out event was attended by 365 people including QCOSS members, Queensland peak bodies and government department representatives.

Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon Cameron Dick MP presented Queensland’s 2024 Budget and spoke about its impact on the social services sector.

We were pleased to welcome a number of government ministers, including:

Hon Cameron Dick MP
Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment
Hon Meaghan Scanlon MP
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Public Works
Hon Charis Mullen MP
Minister for Child Safety, Minister for Seniors and Disability Services and Minister for Multicultural Affairs
Hon Leeanne Enoch MP
Minister for Treaty, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Minister for Communities and Minister for the Arts
Hon Minister Mick de Brenni MP
Minister for Energy and Clean Economy Jobs
Hon Di Farmer MP
Minister for Education and Minister for Youth Justice

Submissions and letters

Among other strategies, QCOSS uses submissions and participation in government managed committees and processes to provide policy input and advocate for better outcomes for Queenslanders.

Inquiry into Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Safety Net) Bill 2023
Charter of Rights Campaign Coalition submission to the Inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework
Our Place: A First Nations Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2024-2027
Inquiry into the Integrity and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 (Qld)
Confidential consultation on draft Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (2023)
Inquiry into the worsening rental crisis in Australia
Ensuring the annual rent increase frequency limit is effective
Growing Child Safe Organisations Consultation
Draft Shaping South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 Update
Residential Care Review
Whole of government and community strategy to address the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Queensland criminal justice system
National Housing and Homelessness Plan
Submission to Inquiry on Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Bill 2023
Open letter to WA Premier calling for the closure of Unit 18, Casuarina adult prison (housing young people)
Submission to Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill 2023 in enshrining key commitments of the Plan into law
Not-for-Profit Sector Development Blueprint
Youth Justice Reform in Queensland
Senate Select Committee on Cost of Living
Putting Queensland Kids First Consultation Draft
Inquiry into the provision and regulation of supported accommodation
Emergency Services Reform Amendment Bill 2023
Youth Justice Reform in Queensland round two
Anti-Discrimination Bill 2024
Residential and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
Public Trustee Fees and Charges Reform
Cheaper Power (Supplementary Appropriation) Bill 2024
Queensland Community Safety Bill 2024
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill 2024.