Federal Minister visits The Jewish House
Federal Mental Health, Ageing, Social Inclusion, Housing and Homelessness Minister Mark Butler has paid a private visit to The Jewish House in Bondi.
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Mark Butler, Rabbi Mendel Kastel and Walt Secord
Mr Butler met with The Jewish House CEO, Rabbi Mendel Kastel and was joined by Labor Shadow Minister for Water and Duty Labor MP for Vaucluse, Walt Secord, who is also NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel deputy chair and a former Australian Jewish News journalist.
They discussed The Jewish House activities in Sydney and Sydney’s east and met with its staff.
It was Mr Butler’s first visit to The Jewish House.
Rabbi Kastel told Mr Butler about The Jewish House being a safe haven open to any member of the public in need. It assists in a wide range of circumstances, ranging from someone requiring a counselling session to someone requiring a bed and a roof over their head. Whatever the case is, when a person is in need of help and on the edge of despair, the Jewish House is there to provide food, shelter, counselling, jobs searching and a 24/7 crisis line.
Mr Secord paid tribute to the work of The Jewish House and said it had a proud 30 year track record and had assisted in providing emergency housing accommodation to about 200 people a year – accounting for almost 2,000 nights of emergency accommodation last year alone. “The Jewish House does a fantastic job, supporting families and I want to work in partnership with Rabbi Kastel and his staff,” Mr Secord said.
Mr Butler’s visit was on the same day (March 5) as the Federal Government announced that older people will be the ultimate winners from a landmark deal that will provide higher wages, better conditions and more rewarding careers for the nation’s 350,000 aged care workers.
As part of its Living Longer Living Better aged care reforms, the Australian Government announced that up to $1.2 billion would be provided to address workforce pressures.
Mr Butler said earlier that this funding will flow from July through a ‘Workforce Supplement’, delivering pay rises for aged care nurses, care workers and others in the aged care industry.
An additional 1 per cent pay rise will be available above minimum annual wage increases or other wage rises negotiated through enterprise bargaining agreements for workers employed by aged care providers that meet the requirements of a Workforce Compact.
What nonsense.. a private visit … that just happened to coincide with a Government announcement on aged health care during the longest election campaign in Australia’s history.
Appreciate your highlighting the great work of The Jewish House, but really this article is a very nice free kick to the ALP.