Page 1589 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The hard work, creativity and flexibility in finding different ways of working has been astounding. I thank our community sector partners for their dedication and incredible effort to support people experiencing considerable vulnerability during this difficult period.
I would also like to thank the many public servants who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support the specialist service providers and the sector. Their efforts to learn from the sector about the profound impact that the pandemic was having on families and services were instrumental in framing how the ACT and Australian governments could best respond.
The regular meetings of the domestic and family violence sector roundtable provided the local mechanism for identifying and prioritising sector-wide issues. This roundtable was also important for facilitating planning, coordination and responses, including getting accurate and consistent communication out across the community.
In April, I announced the details of $3 million in community support funding, which included $1.7 million to support people facing homelessness or domestic and family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The community support package provided immediate financial support for community providers. $550,000 was allocated to respond to an increase in demand for domestic and family violence and sexual assault services and provide emergency accommodation to women, children and families experiencing domestic and family violence, including boosting the safer families assistance grants by $125,000 and funding for the Domestic Violence Crisis Service and Canberra Rape Crisis Centre. These frontline services received $350,000 and $75,000, respectively.
Some of the accommodation and homelessness services funding which will support those escaping family violence include initiatives aimed at addressing increased demand and providing more temporary accommodation options. These provide $832,000 for both emergency and long-term accommodation for men, women and children who face the challenge of physical distancing in shelters, self-isolation when needed and potential quarantine. This money was provided to establish and operate MacKillop House and increase OneLink’s capacity.
The ACT government also announced a provider support fund, with $1 million in grant funding to support community service organisations who adopt innovative ways to conduct essential business so that providers can continue operations remotely.
There has been significant progress on reforming the safer families package, which I spoke on in last year’s ministerial statement. The ACT government created the safer families levy to provide an ongoing revenue base to fund system reform and service improvements.
Funds were set aside to build whole-of-government and multi-agency domestic and family violence capacity, capability and infrastructure; improve the capacity of frontline domestic and family violence services to meet increased demand; and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video