Page 1236 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 29 March 2017
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question time, when I responded to a question from Ms Le Couteur, you will see that I did actually talk about the process that we had underway with SHOUT and its member organisations—we have also talked to ACTCOSS about being involved in these discussions—to work through with a way forward and a transition for SHOUT and its member organisations to a new arrangement. What Ms Davey said then is exactly consistent with what I said last week. And as I said last week, we are not yet in a position to talk about the details, because those discussions are ongoing.
MS LEE: Minister, is the transition funding that you are talking about going to be provided by the ACT government and, also, given your repeated insistence that SHOUT has previously received transition funding, will this make a difference?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Lee for her supplementary question. I have said that SHOUT did previously receive $20,000 of sector development funding in 2014 to work through some of the implications of NDIS. Sometimes organisations need some time to work through a range of matters around new funding arrangements that come into place.
I think it is important to recognise that the national disability insurance scheme is a massive reform. It is a very complex reform. Things have moved over time. As I said in this place last week and have said repeatedly publicly, SHOUT was assessed as being absolutely in the right space to receive information linked to the capacity building funding under the NDIS. In fact that is how they are currently funded. They are currently funded through a transition arrangement. They receive that funding because they were assessed as being 100 per cent in the bucket for that information linkage to capacity building funding.
They assessed that they would not be successful in applying for funding under the ILC grants process this time around. A combination of factors has gone into that decision. As I have been saying for well over a month now, Minister Fitzharris and I were already looking at and talking about alternative or additional sources of funding for SHOUT, recognising that they support a range of community organisations. This is the process we are currently working through.
MR WALL: Minister, have you had discussions with any other community organisations in regard to taking over the management of SHOUT or to replace the functions of SHOUT? If so, which organisations?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Wall for his supplementary question. I mentioned that we have had a conversation with ACTCOSS about being involved in facilitating a process with SHOUT and its members, and with other interested community organisations. Again, I think Ms Fitzharris made the point in a debate last week that there is potentially an opportunity here for a new arrangement to support these organisations, to provide the support they need. Government agencies, ministers and their offices have been encouraging SHOUT for some time to have conversations with organisations that would be complementary, and would provide complementary skills and services in the same sector. In fact those conversations have been had before, and those conversations are ongoing.
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