Homelessness Week 2025

Raising Voices and Restoring Dignity.

Every night in Australia, more than 122,000 people don’t have a safe place to call home. Not because they’ve failed—but because systems have.

Homelessness Week is a time to face the truth behind the headlines: domestic violence, rental stress, trauma, poverty, and a lack of support drive people to the edge. It's not just rough sleepers. It’s women and children fleeing violence, families living in cars, young people couch surfing, older Australians priced out.

This week, we stand up. We speak out. We shine a light on what’s really going on—and how we can help.

Join us as we raise awareness, challenge stigma, and take action by supporting this worthy cause.

The Line UP

Akmal

Akmal has been in Movies, Sketch, Stand‐Up, done Tv appearances, he is a Radio personality, documentary maker and talk show host, improvisation and a published author, Akmal is one of Australia’s most respected, successful and accomplished comics. He displays an incredible ability to deal with hot topics in a hilarious and non‐offensive way. Being Australia’s only Arab comedian, His Arab heritage steers his comedy to issues of religion, honesty, hysterical looks at modern day life. His uncanny comedic gift means he is one of those gifted comedians who has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand as soon as he walks on stage.

Ellen Briggs

Ellen Briggs is an author, comedy writer, and professional MC, but where she is most at home is on the stage doing stand up comedy. Early on in her career, she was a finalist in the prestigious RAW Comedy Competition and won a National Foxtel competition that was voted on by peers and managers in the industry. She has never looked back.

Ellen regularly performs as a comedian and MC at venues all over Australia, and has created a stand-up comedy show called Women Like Us with fellow comedian Mandy Nolan that they tour all over Australia to packed houses and rave reviews. On the 1st May 2018, they released their co-authored book,” Women Like Us” which needed a reprint in the first week!

In 2017, Ellen was selected by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to perform at the Melbourne Town Hall in UpFront, the women’s comedy gala to over 2,000 people. In early 2018, she toured with Arj Barker and Gordon Southern with Punchline Comedy through Asia to rave reviews in all those shows.

Ellen has an easy-going, friendly nature that belies the dark wit that lurks beneath. She is completely relatable, and it comes naturally to her. It’s been said that “Ellen says out loud the things other mothers only dare to even think”, and that Ellen takes her audience on an observational and hilarious journey through life as an accidental mother of identical twins and the wife of a husband who is away working for 8 months of the year. She has made an art form of sneaking really politically incorrect jokes onto the end of “nice” yarns. She launches the punch lines stealthily. You won’t see them coming, but you’ll know when they hit.

Ellen has performed alongside all of the big names in Australian comedy and is a highly regarded and much-loved colleague. Ellen is a favourite at ladies' events, such as Melbourne Cup Lunches, Girls' Nights In, and numerous other Cancer Council and fundraising events. She has also become sought after for men’s luncheons and functions, for a hilarious women’s perspective that is not often heard at those events!

Regionally based, she is as comfortable hosting national conferences such as the Agricultural Show Society and Poultry Associations as she is performing in premier comedy clubs such as The Comics Lounge in Melbourne and the Sit Down Comedy Club in Brisbane

Mandy Nolan

Mandy is in demand as a corporate performer delighting The Conference for Women

Parliamentarians with her wit, alongside Julia Guilard, Julie Bishop and speaker of the

house Bronwyn Bishop just days before her infamous demotion via helicopter. Mandy’s

offbeat charm also saw her as a regular guest on ABC Statewide’s Thank God It’s Friday

with Richard Glover, on ABC’s Ask the Doctor with Caroline West and Jean Kitson and

numerous episodes of SBS’s Mum’s the Word.

A 5 times published author Nolan’s titles include ‘What I Would Do If I Were You’ &

‘Boyfriend’s We’ve all Had and Shouldn’t have’ ‘Home Truths’, ‘Women Like Us’ coauthored

with Ellen Briggs and her most recent ‘The Full Mandy’. Sydney Morning Herald’s Bruce

Elder called Nolan ‘the country’s sharpest and wittiest comedic columnist’.

Oh, and by the way, Nolan is also the mother of 5 children, who she credits as the true

source of her creativity. ‘When I had kids, everything else looked easy!’

In the most recent election she was the Greens candidate for the Federal seat of Richmond.

She came close to winning, but narrowly missed out. Her political campaigning has seen her

host panels with Grace Tame, speak to renowned climate scientist Dr Joelle Gergis and

Ethics Professor Clive Hamilton. She shared the spotlight with Bob Brown, and saved

Annabelle Crabb from a charity auction gone wrong. Did I mention she’s a gun fundraiser?

She’s hosted hundreds of sell out fancy gala’s and specialises in smashing fundraising

targets- hosted a sleep-in for homelessness and raised $30k, a gala flood relief concert with 

Kitty Flanagan for $65k, most recently pulling $1million in a single sitting at a Philanthropic

gathering she hosted.

So who is she? Comedian? Author? Podcaster? Politician? Teacher?

‘All of those things, ’ laughs Nolan. A long time ago, I realised what drives me. I’m a trouble

maker. Or as I like to reframe it, a change maker. And I’ll use whatever is required to drive

the change. Be that a joke, or a vote.’