Page 2963 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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… across relevant government and community organisation programs, to improve understanding of how unemployed or underemployed youth may better access and navigate existing employment related vocational education and training initiatives.
That is it. Apparently all of the needed measures are already in place and the government’s job is merely to help our unemployed and underemployed young people better understand and use those existing services. This does not sound to me like a commitment to develop specific initiatives that deal with this problem.
Rebecca Cuzzillo, policy director for the Youth Coalition of the ACT, told the select committee:
We are particularly disappointed with the lack of investment in specific initiatives to address … youth unemployment and underemployment.
So am I. And I am disappointed in the government’s lukewarm response to this recommendation from the Select Committee on Estimates. The minister said that she will take seriously any recommendations on this matter proposed by the Youth Advisory Council. Why, I ask, does the minister need to wait on an advisory council? She has the recommendation from the Youth Coalition and the recommendation from the Select Committee on Estimates already. Is this not enough?
MS ORR (Yerrabi) (5.34): In light of this year’s budget making a record investment to the care of Canberra’s children and young people I would like to take the opportunity to speak of my experience growing up alongside children in care. When I was growing up, my family fostered many children, sometimes for a short time, sometimes for a longer time, and in the case of my siblings, forever.
Each child who came into our care was unique. The reasons they came into care were unique and the care they needed was unique. Growing up with all these children and getting to know their stories firsthand taught me that stability and support is the best thing for each of them and their birth or carer families. That is why, when it is possible, the best place for a child is to be with their birth family. When this is not possible, every effort should be made to ensure that a child has a safe, stable and loving home.
Building on the safer families package announced last year, the measures in this year’s budget strengthen the coordinated strategy we have taken with child and youth protection. The 2017-18 budget includes $10.1 million in additional funding for the child and youth protection service within the Community Services Directorate. This funding will provide two additional casework teams, allowing deeper consideration of each individual case. In addition, we are investing $33.7 million in an integrated approach with our community partners to provide safer environments and additional support to those children who are unable to live with their birth families. This budget commits to the continued implementation of the government’s A step up for our kids reforms and, taken together, these measures put the resources where they are needed most.
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