Ms WALKER - 2016-05-25
This morning Labor outlined our plan to invest in vulnerable children and their families by committing to expand the successful nurse-led home visiting plan implemented by Congress in Alice Springs. We will invest $8m over four years and support another 500 children and their parents every year.
Minister, will you support Labor’s investment in children through this important program?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a good question and I will answer it with a question in reply. Who is paying for it? How will you fund this? Will you take that money out of the child protection system, which we just had to inject $10m into? Are you presuming your plan will be able to recover that money from the child protection system because there will be fewer children in need of care?
If that is the case then you are rolling the dice with children’s lives, and that is something I cannot subscribe to, and I certainly would not support an approach like that. We, on this side of the House, have been quite firm in the role of child protection, which is why we are spending an extra $10m per year in that system to ensure the out-of-home services and accommodation are there.
If you do not take that money out of existing services, then the only other place you can take it from is the credit card. We, as governments, struggle with that reality every day. Whilst I understand it is nice to have the notion, the fact is you have to pay for it. The only place you can pay for it is out-of-home care services that are currently provided to children. I would rather make sure a child who is being protected from abuse, neglect or even sexual abuse has a safe place to be under the care of out-of-home care services or a foster carer. That is where my priority remains.
Minister, will you support Labor’s investment in children through this important program?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a good question and I will answer it with a question in reply. Who is paying for it? How will you fund this? Will you take that money out of the child protection system, which we just had to inject $10m into? Are you presuming your plan will be able to recover that money from the child protection system because there will be fewer children in need of care?
If that is the case then you are rolling the dice with children’s lives, and that is something I cannot subscribe to, and I certainly would not support an approach like that. We, on this side of the House, have been quite firm in the role of child protection, which is why we are spending an extra $10m per year in that system to ensure the out-of-home services and accommodation are there.
If you do not take that money out of existing services, then the only other place you can take it from is the credit card. We, as governments, struggle with that reality every day. Whilst I understand it is nice to have the notion, the fact is you have to pay for it. The only place you can pay for it is out-of-home care services that are currently provided to children. I would rather make sure a child who is being protected from abuse, neglect or even sexual abuse has a safe place to be under the care of out-of-home care services or a foster carer. That is where my priority remains.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016