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 Town of Nowhere Campaign Launch, Brisbane 

Rebooting the system

Overturning systems and structures that create and perpetuate equality

Rebooting the system

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Election year advocacy

The 2020 Queensland election provided the platform for a year of advocacy. Based on feedback from members, QCOSS’ Recovery for All Queenslanders campaign inserted into the election debate the needs of Queenslanders most affected by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. QCOSS reiterated these needs through budget submissions before both the December 2020 and June 2021 Queensland budgets. 

In its December 2020 Budget, the Queensland Government announced $4 million funding for 20 community service workers to support delivery of no interest loan schemes.

 NILS provider: Multilink Community Services Inc, Logan 

 Campaign spotlight: 

A Recovery for All Queenslanders

To make sure all Queenslanders can engage in the economic recovery, governments must partner with the community sector to put people at the centre of economic recovery plans.

  1. Fund No Interest Loans Scheme providers

  2. Ensure the JobSeeker payment is kept above the poverty line

  3. Ensure targeted bill relief

  4. Invest in a social housing construction boom

  5. Investment in energy efficiency and solar for low-income households

  6. Create a Community Sector Resilience Fund for community organisations

  7. Guarantee the sustainability of the community services sector.

In April 2021, QCOSS together with 12 member organisations, launched the Town of Nowhere campaign, calling for a substantial increase to government investment in social housing.

 Campaign spotlight: 

The Town of Nowhere logo

With 26,400 families waiting for social housing and historically low rental vacancy rates throughout the state, Queensland is in a housing crisis.  
 
The campaign delivered: 

  • billboards across Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Brisbane.  

  • more than 1,200 direct emails sent to government calling for more social housing

  • more than 30,000 Queenslanders directly engaged via social media

  • more than 1.4 million people reached via media reporting, radio and television

  • $2.8 million in earned media.   

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Carol Godwin, CEO Anglicare Central Queensland

We want to support tenancies not hand out tents.

 

Across Central Queensland, vacancy rates are almost zero per cent.

 

We desperately need more social housing and we really need it now.

In its June 2021 Budget, the Queensland Government announced $2.9 billion funding for social housing, including a $1 billion Housing Investment Fund.

Implementing Queensland's Human Rights Act

QCOSS is supporting the implementation of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) across the community services sector.

Human Rights, Housing and Homelessness project

Launched in March 2021, this project is being delivered in partnership with the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, and aims to instill a human rights culture into housing and homelessness services.  

Human Rights in Action webinars

This webinar series saw some of the sector’s most prominent voices provide practical applications of the Act to day-to-day work. With more than 1,000 participants joining six events, the series explored cultural rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, coercive control, youth justice, hate crimes and vilification, women’s rights and human rights.

All QCOSS submissions and submission templates incorporate commentary on the compatibility or incompatibility of legislative and policy proposals with the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld).

Creating an evidence base informed by lived experience

In 2020-21, QCOSS published a series of research reports exploring the nature of poverty and inequality, along with the risks, barriers and opportunities for Queensland’s community service sector.

Living Affordability in Queensland (August 2020) 

This report modelled the income and expenditure of five sample low-income household types in metropolitan Queensland and analysed changes in cost of living relative to income.

COVID-19 and Consumer Energy Vulnerability in Queensland (September 2020)

This report explored the impact of COVID-19 on electricity consumers in Queensland.

State of the Sector (November 2020)

This report examined emerging issues and trends in Queensland’s community service sector, with particular focus on the impact of COVID-19 in 2020.

Incorporating the consumer voice: Delivering consumer-centric services (November 2020)

The report explored how Queensland’s community organisations incorporate consumer voices into service design and delivery through engagement tactics that generate consumer information.

COVID-19 impacts on Queenslanders: The unfolding impacts of COVID-19 and how they are distributed among different people (March 2021)

This report identified the Queensland cohorts most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gender impact analysis of the Queensland Budget 2021-2022 (June 2021)

Commissioned by QCOSS’ Women’s Equality Network, this report presented a gender impact assessment of the policies announced in the Queensland State Budget 2021-22.

Over 2020-21, QCOSS sought to ensure its research and advocacy agenda reflected real and timely issues in the community service sector.

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The team implemented an issues identification system based on the systematic collection and analysis of data provided by members, along with an analysis of a baseline set of indicators, such as unemployment rates by region, JobSeeker application rates; socio-economic indices, homelessness and social housing data.

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