Back on 20 December 2007 I wrote an article “Bah Humbug, Centrelink Cuts Off the Homeless” reporting allegations that Centrelink were cancelling the benefits of homeless persons who were unable to provide identity documents.

The General Manager of Centrelink, Hank Jongen responded to this article and last night, I received a response from Elizabeth Baraka, coordinator of the Homeless Persons Legal Service. Click here to read their responses.

Performing a little bit of mediation between the two opposing sides, I notified Mr Jongen of Ms Baraka’s response and sent a copy of the email to the Homeless Persons Legal Service, located at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney:

Dear Mr Jongen

Further to my email dated 22 December 2007 re: your comment posted on Australian Women Online in response to my article Bah Humbug, Centrelink Cuts Off the Homeless

Ms Elizabeth Baraka, Coordinator of the Homeless Persons Legal Service has posted a response to your comment on the website at the above link. You can contact Ms Baraka by email ******* or at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre on Phone: ******* or Fax: *******

[for privacy reasons I have omitted all contact details here]

I now consider this as an issue just between Centrelink and the Homeless Persons Legal Service. I hope you will be able to work together to resolve this issue for the homeless.

Best Regards

Deborah Robinson
www.australianwomenonline.com

About an hour ago I received this response from Centrelink:

Dear Deborah,

As Hank is currently on leave, I thought I would respond to your email on his behalf.

I have passed the contact details of the Legal Service on to our community relationships team. They are arranging to speak directly with Ms Baraka so we can address any specific concerns she and the Legal Service may have regarding proof of identity issues where homeless people are concerned.

Thanks for allowing us to to provide our response to the original posting, and the opportunity to follow up this issue directly with the Homeless Persons Legal Service.

Kind regards,

Angela McIntyre
Senior Media Adviser
Centrelink National Media
Communication Division

I am thrilled to be able to say that Australian Women Online played a small part in bringing these two organisations together for the benefit of the homeless. This news couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. After all the unpleasantness of the last few days it’s good to have something positive to focus on.

Wishing you all a wonderful day!