Ms ANDERSON - 2008-05-07
Can the minister detail community service measures in the budget to benefit Territory families?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her question. The Henderson government said delivering for Territory families is its No 1 priority, and Budget 2008-09 delivers on that commitment. If we look at the budget for the funding for families, our young people and children who need support, it is provided with an additional $2.5m to support the new Family Responsibility program. That program is very important because it will look at supporting those families having trouble with children at risk and getting into trouble with the law. By putting that in place and putting the money there, we will be able to case manage the at-risk youth and their families and reduce the chances of those children and young people getting into trouble and involved in crime.
With that budget for community services, $3.7m is to subsidise the cost of childcare, with increased funding for child health programs; $1.9m for family support services; and $1.2m for child and adolescent mental health services - a very important area which gets an increase.
As we have heard, Budget 2008-09 puts in an additional $57m on top of what we are already spending in Closing the Gap funding. That includes $1.7m for the important areas of child protection and getting those workers out into those communities; an additional $2.5m for child protection workers, and particularly the out of home care, which certainly needs to be done; $2m for the sexual assault referral and family violence services, which I am particularly quite excited about the expansion of the services into Katherine; and $1.5m for integrated child and family centres.
I have already spoken about the Children’s Commissioner’s role, which is an important one, which will be pivotal to pulling together all of the initiatives that we have done in targeting families and working with those children.
Madam Speaker, the Henderson government is continuing to support families through Budget 2008-09. We are delivering for Territory families, which is our No 1 priority.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her question. The Henderson government said delivering for Territory families is its No 1 priority, and Budget 2008-09 delivers on that commitment. If we look at the budget for the funding for families, our young people and children who need support, it is provided with an additional $2.5m to support the new Family Responsibility program. That program is very important because it will look at supporting those families having trouble with children at risk and getting into trouble with the law. By putting that in place and putting the money there, we will be able to case manage the at-risk youth and their families and reduce the chances of those children and young people getting into trouble and involved in crime.
With that budget for community services, $3.7m is to subsidise the cost of childcare, with increased funding for child health programs; $1.9m for family support services; and $1.2m for child and adolescent mental health services - a very important area which gets an increase.
As we have heard, Budget 2008-09 puts in an additional $57m on top of what we are already spending in Closing the Gap funding. That includes $1.7m for the important areas of child protection and getting those workers out into those communities; an additional $2.5m for child protection workers, and particularly the out of home care, which certainly needs to be done; $2m for the sexual assault referral and family violence services, which I am particularly quite excited about the expansion of the services into Katherine; and $1.5m for integrated child and family centres.
I have already spoken about the Children’s Commissioner’s role, which is an important one, which will be pivotal to pulling together all of the initiatives that we have done in targeting families and working with those children.
Madam Speaker, the Henderson government is continuing to support families through Budget 2008-09. We are delivering for Territory families, which is our No 1 priority.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016