Page 3338 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 21 August 2018
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DVCS even when in serious need. In one instance a member of my staff walked over to the Magistrates Court to assist one of these desperate victims who had been trying for hours to access help through the telephone.
This is not good enough. We need to have a completely accurate picture of what the real demand is for our front-line crisis providers, and then this government needs to make sure that these services have the funds they need to be able to operate without compromising the safety of families. Safer families falls into the “no” or “unclear” column.
What we need in this territory is clear accountability targets for specific prevention and early intervention measures, and regular reports against these targets. Many of these can be found in the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children, which this government signed up to. But what really has been implemented? Has the safer families package really made any difference? These kinds of questions were asked of this government in a forum in April and, according to what those who attended told me, the answers then were vague and unsatisfying. I see no improvement in this budget. Canberra residents rightly expect better.
I now want to address care and protection. This is another crucially important area where Canberrans expect their government to get things right. It is good to see a proper investment in adoption and permanency finally being made in this year’s budget. But why has it taken so long? My colleague Ms Lawder first raised concerns about the adoption process in the ACT in 2015. Both Labor and the Greens blocked her attempt to improve matters. Thankfully, she persisted and in 2016 secured the creation of the domestic adoptions task force. As was made very clear during estimates hearings, the commitment to provide funding to the Community Services Directorate for staff to work specifically on adoption and permanency is a direct response to the task force’s recommendations. In other words, without the clear leadership of the Canberra Liberals, who first raised this issue and then persistently pursued it over the course of two years, nothing would have changed.
This budget predicts that costs for out of home care will rise again this year, strongly suggesting that many of these kids are being provided for in residential care homes, which, despite being the most expensive option, has the worst known outcomes. In a recent discussion, a child protection expert told me that his single biggest concern when it comes to out of home care is lack of support for carers. In their budget submission, ACTCOSS specifically mentioned lack of training and financial support for carers. This, they added, is a particular issue for informal kinship carers, who lack access to the supports and services available through ACT Together.
Unfortunately, at least one grandparent carer support group has lost approximately 80 per cent of its government funding in this budget, without an adequate replacement. When they asked where to go for help instead, this government actually referred them to an organisation whose website specifically says they do not and cannot assist informal kinship carers, a fact I confirmed with a phone call. Imagine that: in one go this government yanked the funds these elderly care providers have been using to access a trained social worker, and then this same government sent these grandparents off to seek help from an organisation that openly advertises that it cannot provide that
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