Ms LEE - 2012-10-24
Can the minister update the House on the state of the Children and Families department and are there any funding challenges the minister can inform the House of?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the new member for Arnhem - a mother and a great new leader in her community. We are very excited to have her on board.
Yes, there are some major challenges facing the Office of Children and Families, compliments of the former government. It is troubling that, despite the effort and money invested in child protection in response to the recommendations of the board of inquiry report two years ago, the number of notifications of children being harmed or neglected in the Northern Territory continues to increase quite dramatically.
Last year the numbers of notifications received by Children and Families was 7970, an increase of nearly 22% from the previous year. Related to this is the subsequent increase in the number of children and young people entering out-of-home care because they are unable to live at home safely.
The 2011-12 budget for the Department of Children and Families was $173m. As of 30 June this year, as a stand-alone department 865 staff were employed, with 683 employed in the front line. These frontline workers are expected to work with families in providing child protection and domestic and family violence services, or in roles which directly support this type of work.
In its haste to make up the failures it had been burdened with over the last decade, Labor recruited many frontline workers but there was one major problem: it did not allocate any money.
We have found over the last eight weeks and three days we have been in government that the former Minister for Child Protection, the member for Casuarina, worked with an open cheque book saying, ‘Yes, you keep employing these people, go for it. We will worry about the money later’, which we now know typifies how the former government worked and how the Treasurer, now Leader of the Opposition, liked to do business. Spend, spend, spend and worry about how you will pay it back later, thus the incredible fiscal deficit we are faced with at the moment.
Labor's cavalier approach to budget accountability meant staff were employed by government but funding these positions was someone else’s responsibility, someone else’s problem. That problem has landed right in the laps of the new government of the Northern Territory.
I am committed to making real change for children and families despite the budget constraints, and to retaining staff, which is critical to improving services across the board.
I guarantee no frontline staff will lose their jobs through having these positions cut. The Country Liberals will find the money, as difficult as that will be - and I can assure you it will be very difficult, but it is the legacy of how the Labor government did business. Allowing child protection workers to be employed and undertake very important, critical work without giving the department ongoing money is a very bad legacy.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the new member for Arnhem - a mother and a great new leader in her community. We are very excited to have her on board.
Yes, there are some major challenges facing the Office of Children and Families, compliments of the former government. It is troubling that, despite the effort and money invested in child protection in response to the recommendations of the board of inquiry report two years ago, the number of notifications of children being harmed or neglected in the Northern Territory continues to increase quite dramatically.
Last year the numbers of notifications received by Children and Families was 7970, an increase of nearly 22% from the previous year. Related to this is the subsequent increase in the number of children and young people entering out-of-home care because they are unable to live at home safely.
The 2011-12 budget for the Department of Children and Families was $173m. As of 30 June this year, as a stand-alone department 865 staff were employed, with 683 employed in the front line. These frontline workers are expected to work with families in providing child protection and domestic and family violence services, or in roles which directly support this type of work.
In its haste to make up the failures it had been burdened with over the last decade, Labor recruited many frontline workers but there was one major problem: it did not allocate any money.
We have found over the last eight weeks and three days we have been in government that the former Minister for Child Protection, the member for Casuarina, worked with an open cheque book saying, ‘Yes, you keep employing these people, go for it. We will worry about the money later’, which we now know typifies how the former government worked and how the Treasurer, now Leader of the Opposition, liked to do business. Spend, spend, spend and worry about how you will pay it back later, thus the incredible fiscal deficit we are faced with at the moment.
Labor's cavalier approach to budget accountability meant staff were employed by government but funding these positions was someone else’s responsibility, someone else’s problem. That problem has landed right in the laps of the new government of the Northern Territory.
I am committed to making real change for children and families despite the budget constraints, and to retaining staff, which is critical to improving services across the board.
I guarantee no frontline staff will lose their jobs through having these positions cut. The Country Liberals will find the money, as difficult as that will be - and I can assure you it will be very difficult, but it is the legacy of how the Labor government did business. Allowing child protection workers to be employed and undertake very important, critical work without giving the department ongoing money is a very bad legacy.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016