Family and Community Services and Centrelink:
Ongoing initiatives
Medicare Easyclaim access points
The Australian Government will provide $9.9 million over three years from 2007-08 to continue the operation of 600 Medicare Easyclaim access points including in rural and remote pharmacies, post offices, shops and Rural Transaction Centres.
These facilities were established to provide Australians living in rural and remote Australia, who do not have access to a Medicare office, with better access to Medicare services.
Child Support Agency
Increased face to face services
Through an increased mobile workforce and the opening of an additional five new Regional Service Centres (over the 2007-08 financial year), the Child Support Agency will be enhancing its face to face service delivery and providing parents with greater flexibility in how they interact with the Child Support Agency.
Personalised services approach
A new service approach providing more personalised services is being introduced in 2007-08 for up to 10,000 parents with complex and difficult cases. Staff with specialised skills are being recruited for this more complex area of customer service.
Concessional assets test treatment for rural homeowners
The Australian Government will provide $173 million over four years commencing 1 January 2007, so that, subject to certain criteria, the maximum amount of land adjacent to a pensioner's principal home that can be exempt from the assets test has increased from two hectares to encompass all the land on the same title as their home. To qualify for the concession the pensioner must have a long-term (20 year) continuous attachment to their principal home and adjacent land, and satisfy that they are making effective use of productive land to generate an income, given their capacity. The concession is designed to balance the need to ensure that there are incentives to use one of Australia's greatest resources, productive farm land, effectively, with the community expectation that older Australians in rural and rural residential areas should not be forced to move from their long term home, to gain an adequate retirement income.
Centrelink
Mobile services
The Australian Government has committed $11 million over three years from 2006-07 to 2008-09 for three vehicles to provide mobile Centrelink services and expand Centrelink's specialist Rural Services Officers network to better support the mobile service. This measure will improve access to Australian Government support and assistance for people in regional and remote areas, particularly those affected by drought.
Rural call centres
The Australian Government will provide $33.1 million over four years from 2007-08 to continue funding for Centrelink's two rural call centres in Maryborough, Queensland and Port Augusta, South Australia. The provision of specific Rural Call Centres provides equity of access to information and advice on Australian Government programmes and services by experienced operators sensitive to the needs of individuals, families and communities in rural and regional Australia.
Carers
Respite Support for Carers of Young People with Disabilities
The Australian Government is providing $29.8 million over four years from 2007-08 to continue and expand the Respite Support for Carers of Young People with Severe and Profound Disabilities programme. The programme helps carers whose needs are not being met because no other support or services are available through existing state or territory government services or other Commonwealth initiatives. The programme supports carers of young people under 30 years of age and carers who are experiencing significant stress in caring for a person with a disability under 65 years of age. It includes options such as overnight or weekend respite care or equipment to significantly reduce the stress of the carer. This continuation and expansion will provide immediate and short-term respite support to a further 1,000 carers, in addition to the 5,000 carers previously assisted by the programme each year.
Young Carer Respite and Information Services
The Australian Government has committed $26.6 million over four years from 2004-05 for the Respite and Information Services for Young Carers Programme. The programme helps carers up to 25 years of age who are at risk of leaving education prematurely and not completing secondary education. Young carers can gain access to up to five hours in-home respite per week during the school term to attend education or training. They can also access one fortnight of respite care each year to undertake activities such as studying for exams, training or recreation. Age-appropriate information, advice and referral services are provided through a telephone hotline, on-line advice and an information package.
Peer Support Groups for Parents of Young Children with a Disability programme
The Australian Government has committed $9 million over four years from 2006-07 for the Peer Support Groups for Parents of Young Children with Disabilities Programme. The programme supports parents of young children with disabilities or a chronic medical condition under school age. The programme is expected to eventually benefit over 2,500 families per year. Seventy nine groups are expected to become operational by 30 June 2007 and this will increase to a national network of more than 300 parent peer support groups by 2009 in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.
Reconnect
The Australian Government is providing $85 million over four years from 2007-08 to continue the Reconnect programme.
Reconnect is an Australian Government initiative that provides early intervention support to young people aged between 12 and 18 years who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and their families. Reconnect also builds community capacity to address youth homelessness. There are 100 Reconnect services around Australia and these are located in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote locations.
Mentor Marketplace
The Australian Government has committed $12 million over four years from 2005-06 to 2008-09 for the Mentor Marketplace programme which increases the mentoring opportunities available to young people. The programme engages the business and community sector to provide mentoring to improve outcomes for young people aged 12 to 25, who need assistance staying connected to family, community, education, training and the workplace. The programme also aims to develop a mentoring culture in schools, business and communities, that will result in service providers engaging business and community sectors in mentoring activities and providing in-kind support. Mentor Marketplace projects provide access to mentoring for a wide range of young people, including, but not restricted to: those in foster care; young carers; young people with disabilities; Indigenous young people; and those from disadvantaged groups and localities. Nine of 26 mentor marketplaces are in regional areas.
Transition to Independent Living Allowance
The Australian Government has provided funding of $10.6 million over four years from 2005-06, with $2.6 million in 2007-08, for the Transition to Independent Living Allowance (TILA) which helps young people between 15 and 25 years to make the transition from care to independent living. TILA is administered through non-government organisations in each state and territory to assist young people who are exiting care, who as a group are at high risk of disengaging from education, employment and/or the community. Up to $1,000 in goods or services can be accessed on behalf of these young people.
The Australian Government has expanded the eligibility criteria to now include young people who are exiting juvenile justice, Indigenous kinship care or out of home care and are moving to independent living. This expansion will further the take-up of TILA, which helps young people leaving care to achieve stability and improved participation in community and economic life.
Family Income Management
The Australian Government is providing $16.6 million from 2006-07 to 2009-10 to support money management, the wellbeing of children and home ownership in remote Indigenous communities. These initiatives help build Indigenous people's financial literacy skills, savings patterns, encourage families to use family assistance payments for the wellbeing of their children and support Indigenous home ownership on Indigenous land.
Financial Counselling
The Australian Government continues to support the Commonwealth Financial Counselling Programme (CFCP), with funding of approximately $2.7 million each year allowing 41 community and local government organisations to provide free financial counselling services to people experiencing personal financial difficulties.
Emergency Relief
The Australian Government provides funding of over $31 million each year through the Emergency Relief Programme (ERP) to around 800 community organisations to deliver emergency, financial or other assistance to individuals and families in immediate financial crisis. The ERP is designed to assist the most disadvantaged in the community, through short-term emergency support that maintains the dignity of the individual and encourages self-reliance.
Concessions on Great Southern Rail services
The Australian Government provides around $6.5 million each year to continue the reimbursement of concessional fares on Great Southern Rail services. The measure enables the provision of concessions for pensioners, certain veterans and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders travelling on the Indian Pacific, the Ghan and the Overland rail services.
Stronger Families and Communities Strategy
Communities for Children
The Australian Government has provided $142 million over four years from 2004-05 for the Communities for Children initiative which helps children under five get the best possible start in life by providing practical assistance to their families and communities. The initiative provides funding to 45 sites across Australia. In each site, a lead Non-Government Organisation works in collaboration with service providers, community members, community organisations, business and all levels of government to develop and implement a strategic plan and an annual service delivery plan tailored to community needs.
Invest to Grow
The Australian Government has provided $70.5 million over four years from 2004-05 for Invest to Grow, an initiative which funds a range of early intervention and prevention programmes for young children, their families and communities. Invest to Grow builds the Australian evidence base about what works in prevention and early intervention in early childhood, a priority identified during the National Agenda for Early Childhood consultation process in 2004. Invest to Grow funding also supports the development of resources for parents, community groups, professionals and government organisations to support positive early childhood development. Invest to Grow has also provided funding for the Child Care Links initiative. This initiative uses child care centres in disadvantaged areas as community hubs to link families with young children to local support services and to strengthen community networks.
Local Answers
Local Answers complements other initiatives of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy by providing funding of $151.6 million over five years (2004-2009) to local community organisations including those in rural and regional areas. Funding is available for local, small-scale, time-limited projects that help communities build skills and capacity, identify opportunities and take action for the benefit of their members in partnership with community organisations, business and local government. Local Answers funds projects that build parenting and relationship skills to develop self-reliance in families and communities, or that build skills and opportunities to assist individuals to get involved in community life through volunteering, mentoring and training to build leadership skills.
Local Answers also funds the Volunteer Small Equipment Grants (VSEG). A total of $71.1 million will be available each year over four years. VSEG provides for grants of up to $3,000 to encourage and support volunteers by enabling local community organisations to purchase small equipment items.
Responding Early Assisting Children (REACh)
The Australian Government is providing $4.3 million in 2007-08 to the REACh programme. REACh is an ongoing programme that funds services that provide early intervention support for children and families at risk of child abuse and neglect. The programme has a focus on prevention, developing resilience in families and children, and promoting successful transitions for children in vulnerable families. The programme funds initiatives such as parenting education, home visits by counsellors, family support, playgroups, mentoring and community development.
Playgroup Programme
The Australian Government is providing $6 million in 2007-08 to the Playgroup programme. Playgroups provide important social and development benefits for children, their parents, caregivers and the general community. The Australian Government funds three playgroup models – Community Playgroups, Supported Playgroups and Intensive Support Playgroups (ISP). Currently around 105,000 families and 145,000 children access over 8,500 Community Playgroups across Australia.
The Australian Government will provide funding of $13.8 million over four years from 2007-08 to expand playgroup services for vulnerable Indigenous families. Specifically, the new services will include:
- additional ISPs delivering mobile services across a number of sites;
- increased funding for nine existing ISP services; and
- the introduction of a new playgroup service model in 30 facilitated Locational Supported Playgroups.
Indigenous Children Programme
The Australian Government is providing $5.7 million to the Indigenous Children Programme (ICP) in 2007-08. The ICP has an emphasis on early intervention and prevention approaches in the delivery of services targeted at improving outcomes for Indigenous children and families, particularly those at risk of neglect or abuse. ICP aims to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities and build their resilience and support networks. It is intended that the programme will:
- support the wellbeing of children;
- build culturally strong parenting skills and support for families; and
- build stronger and more sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities.
Australian Early Development Index: Building Better Communities for Children
The Australian Government will provide $3.7 million over two years from 2007-08 to re-run the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) in up to 61 current AEDI communities, implement it in a further 14 disadvantaged communities and develop and trial an Indigenous AEDI.
The AEDI is a community-based population measure of young children's development. It comprises a checklist which is completed by the child's teacher during the first year of school. AEDI results enable communities to understand how children are developing by the time they reach school. It provides communities with data to better allocate resources towards the development of targeted programmes and strategies focused on improving outcomes for children. Alternatively, AEDI results can reaffirm the effectiveness of early childhood strategies already implemented. The project has been funded for up to 61 communities, including 28 regional and remote communities.
Child Care Benefit
The Australian Government has provided unprecedented support for Australian families and the child care sector. On top of record levels of expenditure, the Australian Government will provide an additional $727.9 million over four years to increase the rate of Child Care Benefit by over 13 per cent from 1 July 2007. Child Care Benefit (CCB) assists with the cost of child care for eligible families using approved child care services or registered carers. Assistance provided is higher for lower income families. Families can have the benefit paid directly to the child care service to reduce their ongoing fees or alternatively can receive the benefit as a lump sum payment after the end of the financial year. Families using registered care, such as care provided by a relative, friend or neighbour registered as a carer with the Family Assistance Office, may be eligible for the minimum rate of CCB for up to 50 hours per week of work-related child care. In addition, eligible grandparents who have the primary care of their grandchildren can now have access to more hours of CCB, and for grandparents on income support, access to a grandparent rate of CCB which covers the full cost of approved care for up to 50 hours per week per child.
Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance
The Australian Government has increased funding for the Jobs, Education and Training (JET) Child Care fee assistance programme by $15.4 million over four years in the 2007-08 Budget. This increased funding will assist around an additional 20,000 parents to enter or re enter the workforce. JET Child Care Fee Assistance provides extra child care assistance to eligible parents wishing to undertake rehabilitation, study, work or job search activities so they can participate more fully in work and community life. JET Child Care fee assistance can help meet the costs of child care in approved child care services by paying most of the gap fee. The gap fee refers to the difference between the full child care fee and Child Care Benefit (CCB). Parents receiving this assistance will usually be expected to make a small co-payment towards their child care costs.
National Disability Advocacy Programme
The National Disability Advocacy Programme assists people with a disability to participate fully in the community by helping them overcome barriers in their lives, such as physical access, discriminatory attitudes, abuse or neglect. The Australian Government has provided $12.2 million over four years from 2007-08 to enhance the National Disability Advocacy Programme by providing a 20 per cent increase in funding for the programme, increasing promotion of disability advocacy services across Australia and introducing an independent quality assurance system for disability advocacy services.
The enhancements to the programme will:
- assist in meeting some of the unmet demand for individual advocacy services by increasing the level of support available for up to an additional 3,400 people with disability and their families;
- improve geographic coverage of disability advocacy services in rural and regional areas;
- ensure that people with disability and their families can more easily access disability advocacy services; and
- ensure that people with disability and their families receive quality services.
Aboriginal Rental Housing Programme
The Australian Government is providing $95.4 million in 2007-08 to the Aboriginal Rental Housing Programme (ARHP). The ARHP was introduced in 1979 to address Indigenous housing needs by supplementing Commonwealth State Housing Agreement base funding.
Whilst there is significant housing need in both urban and rural and remote regions, ARHP funds are directed to rural and remote areas where there are limited public or private housing markets.
Home Ownership on Indigenous Land
The Australian Government is providing $107.4 million over four years from 1 July 2006 under the Home Ownership on Indigenous Lands Programme (HOIL) for initiatives to promote Indigenous home ownership on community title land.
HOIL assists Indigenous people living on community owned land to buy their own home where a long‑term individual lease can be obtained. It provides access to affordable home loan finance, discounts on the purchase price of houses, money management training and support, and the construction of additional houses for the purposes of home ownership. The first loans are expected to be issued in late 2007.
National Homelessness Strategy
The Australian Government provided $10 million over four years from 2005-06 to fund the National Homelessness Strategy (NHS). Since its inception in 1999, the NHS has provided leadership in developing approaches for the prevention and reduction of homelessness and broken new ground in integrated service delivery to people who are vulnerable to homelessness. The NHS is available to applicants from all over Australia. A number of the projects announced under the NHS are located in regional locations including Mareeba, Walgett, Bunbury and Kakadu.
Household Organisational Management Expenses
The Australian Government allocated $10.4 million over four years from 2004-05 to fund the Household Organisational Management Expenses (HOME) Advice programme. HOME is designed to assist families to maintain their existing appropriate accommodation.
The Australian Government recognises that it is better to assist people at risk of homelessness through an early intervention approach. This programme helps families stabilise their housing and financial circumstances and assists them with access to community services, education support, services for children, labour market programmes, health services and parenting skills.
Supported Accommodation Assistance Programme
People who have nowhere to sleep for the night can seek accommodation and assistance from Supported Accommodation Assistance Programme (SAAP). SAAP will not only provide them with a bed while they have nowhere to live, but will also link them up to services which will help them resolve the issues which contributed to their homelessness.
SAAP is a programme funded jointly by the Australian, state and territory governments, with the Australian Government offering funding of $932 million over five years (to 2010). SAAP provides emergency and transitional supported accommodation and related services to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Each day, 1,300 SAAP agencies provide assistance to 22,000 Australians who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Commonwealth State Housing Agreement
The Commonwealth State Housing Agreement (CSHA) is a jointly funded programme between the Australian and state and territory governments, providing affordable public, community, Indigenous and crisis housing to those most in need and low income earners. Through the 2003 CSHA, the Australian Government is providing around $4.75 billion in grants to state and territory governments over five years from 1 July 2003. States and territories will contribute around $1.82 billion in matching funds over the life of the agreement. While the strategic directions for housing assistance are subject to Australian Government agreement, the management of public housing is the responsibility of individual state and territory governments.
CSHA funded housing operates throughout Australia. Those dwellings located in regional Australia equate to around 26 per cent of public, 48 per cent of Indigenous and 32 per cent of community housing. A further number are located in remote Australia, namely about 2 per cent of public housing, 17 per cent of Indigenous and 2 per cent of community housing.
Indigenous Women's Development Programme
The Indigenous Women's Development Programme provides $16.5 million over four years from 2004-05. It targets the development of the leadership capacity of Indigenous women. Its purpose is to identify, develop and support Indigenous women to take leadership positions in large numbers. This will enhance the status of Indigenous women within their own and the wider community and encourage Indigenous women to assume leadership positions and raise the profile of important community issues.
Indigenous Women's Programme
The Indigenous Women's Programme provides about $4 million annually to fund activities which are designed to meet the identified needs and aspirations of local Indigenous women. It aims to enhance Indigenous women's leadership, representation, safety, well-being and economic status.
Indigenous Community Leadership Programme
The Indigenous Community Leadership Initiative builds on the Indigenous Women's Development Programme. It provides $13.4 million over four years from 2006-07 to extend the development of leadership capacity to Indigenous men and young people. It will strengthen and increase men's capacity and further develop their skills to lead more effectively at the local level. It will also target young people aged 18-25 years displaying leadership in their communities and lay the foundation for enhanced community leadership.
Women's Safety Agenda
The Women's Safety Agenda delivers on the Australian Government's election commitment to eliminate domestic violence and sexual assault. It reflects recent research and evidence that there are strong policy grounds to continue the Australian Government's agenda in this area.
The Australian Government is providing over $19.3 million in 2007-08 for the Women's Safety Agenda to address four broad themes — prevention, health, justice and services. Together they aim to reduce the incidence and decrease the impact of domestic violence and sexual assault upon the community by building on the achievements of previous initiatives.
A specific element of the initiative is training for nurses in regional and rural areas. Women in rural and regional communities are often afraid to come forward for fear of being identified. The Australian Government will provide funding to train practice nurses in regional and rural areas to assist them to identify and respond to domestic violence. Doctors will also receive assistance to release the nurses for this training. This will give people in regional areas access to a personal, confidential referral service. Following extensive consultation and development, pilots of the training will be conducted later in 2007 ahead of a national rollout over the next two years.
The highly successful national campaign – Violence Against Women. Australia Says NO. – is being run again throughout 2007 as part of the Women's Safety Agenda. Its extensive reach includes TV, radio, cinemas, magazines and rural press.
Another element of the Women's Safety Agenda is funding for community-level action projects across the country designed to deliver local responses to local issues in relation to domestic and family violence and sexual assault.
Women's Leadership and Development Programme
The Women's Leadership and Development Programme delivers on the Australian Government's election commitment to build women's participation and capacity in decision making and leadership.
The Australian Government is providing $14.4 million over four years from 2005-06 for the Women's Leadership and Development Programme for a number of initiatives which will assist women, including those in regional Australia. For example, the Young Women's Leadership and Mentoring Programme is being piloted in three regional locations in 2007 to link young women in the community with high-achieving women from their community. Skills such as personal development, goal setting and governance will be targeted.
Grants and secretariat activities supported through the Women's Leadership and Development Programme include a focus on rural women.
Indigenous social and economic research
The Australian Government will provide $0.8 million over four years to fund Indigenous research that will enable the government to develop sound evidence-based policy and programmes across a broad realm of social and economic areas. All Australians, especially Indigenous Australians, will benefit from research outcomes that facilitate better targeted Indigenous policy and programmes.
Note: further information on Budget initiatives can be found at www.budget.gov.au