Jacquie Petrusma

Jacquie Petrusma MP - Member for Franklin
BUDGET REPLY
June 22nd, 2011

Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak on the Budget reply. As the shadow minister for children, human services and cost of living, my shadow portfolio responsibilities encompass many of the most vulnerable people in this State - children, people living with a disability, those who are homeless or experiencing housing stress and the countless Tasmanians who are finding it more and more difficult to cope with the rising cost of living pressures.

This Greens-Labor Government has again wasted another year of opportunity where it could have begun a paradigm shift in the way that it delivers services and support for some of the most vulnerable people in Tasmania. Instead of delivering vision and forward thinking, the Government has instead delivered a horror budget because over the last 13 years it has wasted millions and millions of dollars. In fact over the last six years it has wasted $1 billion whilst performance targets continue to go backwards and waiting lists increase. For example, the Government is expecting more children to come into care, as well as more people living with a disability to be waiting for day options. Yet they have already spent millions in these areas, and we have just been through an intensive and expensive reform period in child protection and disability services.

Have these reforms not worked, and if so, why not? Is it that they have not been sufficiently resourced? Is it because they have not been properly managed? We need to find out now because certainly in the child-protection area I am extremely concerned about what will be happening in the future. Long-awaited disability reforms, which will provide a fair-unit price for caring for people living with a disability, have again been delayed. Unit pricing was expected to be in place by 1 July 2011, but now it will begin in the next six months and with a three-year transition. The elder-abuse strategy has been significantly pruned, with funding to the elder-abuse prevention strategy now $285 000 a year instead of the promised $650 000 a year over four years.

As a registered nurse who has worked in aged care, as well as being a senior investigation officer in the Department of Health and Ageing where I investigated cases of elder abuse, I have long believed Tasmania urgently needs a strategy to include the protection of vulnerable elderly citizens in this State. I hope to see this initiative started soon before any more money is cut out. TasCOSS were also disappointed to see a funding cut for the elder-abuse strategy, and I quote:

'Tasmania remains the only State in Australia without a formal elder-abuse strategy. A well funded and well implemented elder-abuse strategy has the potential to substantially improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Tasmania.'

This Budget also means that more vulnerable children could fall through the gaps. It also means that people living with a disability, some in the most desperate need, may be forced unnecessarily into hospital beds at an even greater cost to the Government. And it means that people on low fixed incomes will have to pay more bills from money they simply do not have. Tasmania's most vulnerable are now paying the price of Labor and the Greens financial incompetence. This is cruel and unfair.

As a result of the Labor-Greens Government's financial mismanagement over the last few years the funding allocation for Child and Family Services, as well as for the community sector, will now not match the crisis in those systems and the need. TasCOSS has warned that the cuts announced in the Budget to community services may see reductions in vital services and employment in the community services sector. This is because community service organisations rely on annual indexation of their grants from the State Government to meet the increasing costs of wages, electricity and a range of running costs. The 2.25 per cent indexation announced in the State Budget is simply not enough to cover rising costs, which include the recent 3.4 per cent wage increase granted by Fair Work Australia due to be paid from 1 July, and electricity costs that will rise by 11 per cent on the same day.

TasCOSS have also stated:

'We hope that job losses and service cuts can be avoided, but it's hard to see how already struggling community organisations will manage with less funding in the coming year.'

Indexation to the community sector organisations has also been slashed from 3.3 per cent to 2.25 per cent, despite the pre-election promise by Labor and the Greens at the 2010 election to continue the current indexation formula. As TasCOSS has stated, this indexation is now less than the cost of living. This is also due to the Government's mismanagement because there is no money to address the fair-pay case when it is handed down in the future. One of the few highlights of the Budget for me has been the $825 000 for neighbourhood houses. I am very passionate that neighbourhood houses get the recognition and the funding that they deserve so I welcome this increase, however I do note that this amount was requested in the Tasmanian Association of Community Houses budget submission and was deemed by them to be survival money only. Neighbourhood Houses are still desperate for more funding in the future for maintenance and cost-of-living increases.

TasCOSS has also rightly stated that for many years the community sector has been calling for additional investment and reform to the youth justice system. They say:

'This is another budget where we have seen very little action on this issue and once again we are concerned about the lack of new investment in youth justice. We need more community-based sentencing options and more staff on the ground working with young people. Ashley Youth Detention Centre needs to be absolutely the last option.'

Madam Deputy Speaker, I too believe that this Government needs to become more impassioned about breaking the cycle of juvenile offending by implementing measures to establish an effective youth justice system aimed at providing interventions and rehabilitation to reduce offending. It is basic economics: spend $10 000 a year on helping to keep a person out of trouble or spend maybe $150 000-$200 000 a year keeping that young person in Ashley. Relying on youth detention is not the answer.

The previous Premier announced during the last election that he believed there was nothing more important than children and that is why he established the portfolio of Minister for Children. I could not agree more, but once again this Government is not matching its rhetoric with action. If children and youth were so important to this Government they would not have wasted their finances over the last few years resulting in this area now being starved of funding. We have an agenda for children and young people to be released soon, but no money is budgeted for its implementation. Funding for children in Child Protection Services and family support has been slashed, with a reduction of $6 million over the forward Estimates, even though the number of children in State care is projected to rise by 100. This is a real-terms cut and will mean more children will fall through the gaps.

We need to fix the underlying issues in out-of-home care and not try to cover them up. These children need not only love, care, warmth and shelter, but also the damage caused by sexual, physical and emotional abuse addressed. Early intervention should be adequately funded and supported. Support for families needs to be readily available when they first seek help. There is also a desperate need for increased resourcing of our sexual assault and adolescent mental health services, and an environment where children in care are listened to and their issues, concerns and complaints acted on. Therefore this Government should readily take up our suggestion of expanding the role of the Commissioner for Children to allow independent and individual advocacy for children and it should also ensure - as consultants, 3p, have now recommended - that a child's right to an independent children's visitor is extended and enshrined in legislation.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I am also extremely concerned that there are not enough child protection and support workers on the ground to meet the huge increase in the number of children projected by the Government's own figures to come into care. Therefore I am pleased that our alternative budget will protect these frontline services. I am also extremely concerned that the budget papers show a significant increase in the number of children who are notified, not substantiated, but then renotified and had that complaint then substantiated within a 12-month period, and also children who are the subject of a substantiation during the previous year who are then the subject of a subsequent substantiation within 12 months.

As a result of the Government's mismanagement funding has also been slashed for Child and Family Centres, with stage 3 abandoned. In 2009-10 the Government announced it would fund 30 Child and Family Centres at a cost of $76 million, but now only a handful of those centres will be delivered. As well, Labor's promise of more child health checks worth $2 million over four years has been abandoned, with concerns already raised about the impact that this will have on the Child Health and Parenting Service. As a registered nurse, I passionately believe it is vitally important that all Tasmanian children are screened for any potential developmental problems, as it is a well-documented fact that the sooner any problems are found and intervention occurs the better outcome that child will have.

Yesterday the Minister for Human Services, Ms O'Connor, stated that it was clear to her that I have no deep concerns about the measures she has undertaken in Human Services and that the Liberal Opposition recognises that the savings measures taken are based on the principle of protecting the most vulnerable people and those most in need, protecting core services et cetera. Madam Deputy Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. The Liberal Party recognises that the reason we have this horrific budget in Human Services is because this Government has taken us there.

We know that since 2004-05 the Government has spent $1 billion more than was budgeted for. Even this year the Government's own midyear financial report told us that they had yet again overspent the Budget but then, within a matter of weeks, we were presented with a Consolidated Fund appropriation bill asking for an extra $195 million as they had overspent yet again. The Government knew that they were going to have difficulties this year, yet they continued to spend and spend and that has created the budget black hole we currently face.

The Labor-Greens Government has trashed the Budget and now the minister is attempting to make a virtue out of the fact that she has had to make savings measures. At least the Liberals, as well as our other measures announced yesterday, will protect frontline services in my portfolios and put downward pressure on the cost of living. I must add that NDS Tasmania is also questioning the whereabouts of Federal government funds for Disability Services in the State Budget. In 2011-12 the Federal Government will transfer $35 million to the Tasmanian Government, an increase of $3.5 million from the previous year. NDS has requested clarification of this so that specialist disability service providers are able to track the way priorities in the National Disability Agreement are met within Tasmania. This year's Federal Government Budget provided 6.3 per cent disability growth funding to the States and Territories in line with the National Disability Agreement. This year's Budget, however, only indexes disability funding at 2.2 per cent. This discrepancy is of major concern to the State's disability service providers who are incurring considerable increases in the cost of wages and power.

Last year I stated that I was extremely concerned about how the Disability Gateway will function. This is not because of the organisations that are involved in delivering the Gateway because the services and support needed are basically at full capacity. In this Budget the Government has again not addressed the already high existing waiting lists for services and support. The only new initiative in Disability Services is the $500 000 in recurrent funding for individual support packages that was announced a couple of weeks ago after weeks of lobbying on behalf of families and individuals by the Liberal Party. This will, however, only fund around 15-30 ISPs, with the spiralling waiting list of 285 families and individuals continuing to grow. There is no more new money to address the other waiting list pressures in Disability Services. There is also a 25 per cent cut for disability advocates, with Advocacy Tasmania saying that this will mean another 200 people living with a disability or their families will not get the advocacy services they desperately need from now on.

The public sector graduate program for people with a disability, an election promise of Labor and the Greens, has also had to be abolished. Another area where I have major concerns is in relation to Housing. Despite Federal funding of $126 million for affordable housing, projections are that public housing waiting lists will remain high at the 3 000 mark. I note that $23.5 million will be spent this year from the $60 million Housing fund that was established in 2007-08. A lot of spin has been made about this $60 million over the years but it is simply being strung out further. For example, when the $60 million housing fund was established in 2007-08 the money at the time was allocated to be spent immediately. However, after this year more money will not be spent out of this $60 million until 2014-15.

The $6 million for energy efficiency for low-income Tasmanians in private and public housing appears to be a reannouncement from March 2011. However, out of the 11 000 public housing properties, only 3 000 will receive improvements and just 300 will get heater upgrades. Some of the funding for this program is also just rebadged from the Housing maintenance budget. I hope that this money will address some of Housing Tasmania's previous ridiculous policies of not allowing heat pumps in smaller homes but only in four-bedroom homes, of only funding panel heaters, which cost three times as much to run, and when they replace worn carpet, not putting underlay down. This Government has provided tenants no choice in their form of heating and has insisted that they use a heater that costs them three times as much as a heat pump. Yet this Government now says it only has the funds to deliver energy-efficient heating to 300 of our public housing properties, which is only 2.7 per cent of all properties.

The Labor-Greens Government is also having to axe the pensioner rent holiday. In September 2009 when the Australian Government gave pensioners the $30 pension increase, this was exempt from calculation of public housing rent. Before the election, Labor said the rent holiday would extended indefinitely and it would be 'mean-spirited of us to whittle away this boost to pensioners through Housing Tasmania rent increases'. Now because the Labor-Greens Government have whittled away the State's finances, they have gone back on their word. The Government's incompetence now puts increasing pressure on aged-care pensioners, especially when combined with the move to a flat 25 per cent rate for public housing rents. Some tenants on fixed incomes, such as disability pensioners and aged-care pensioners, only pay 21 per cent and the move to a flat rate will result in around 65 per cent of housing tenants now paying more. This may result in increases for tenants of $500 per year with no capacity for those tenants to pay, even allowing for a transition period to the 25 per cent rate. Shelter Tasmania have said, 'This will, undoubtedly, cause further hardship for those who can least afford it, which will in turn put further pressure on social services'.

I have to add that the so-called reinvestment of 50 per cent of TAHL's funding into the private rental support scheme and the private rental tenancy support scheme, whilst welcome is also questionable because this money was never delivered to TAHL by the Government.

In regard to housing affordability, the HIA have described it as a 'horror smash budget.' Stuart Clues stated:

'It is hard to believe that any government would want to further the divide between the haves and the have-nots in our society. Young Tasmanians wanting to get out of the rental market and into home ownership have already lost $21 000 under the Federal Government's stimulus package and now the State Government has withdrawn stamp duty concessions. We are at risk of having a social divide of those who can afford a home and those who face an uncertain future in the rental market.'

The question also needs to be asked: what has been delivered from all the money spent on housing last financial year, when all indicators point to a continuing and ongoing crisis in affordable housing in this State, with public housing waiting list is still over 3 000?

Cost of living pressures will continue to increase as a result of the additional impost in this Budget, impacting on all Tasmanians from aged care pensioners to families with school children. They include Labor's broken promise to cap water and sewerage bills, which means that bills will now increase by 10 per cent or $100, whichever is the greater. Health fees and charges will increase. There are higher costs for parents in rural areas in getting children to the next school as local schools close. The road safety levy, an extra cost on car registrations, is extended indefinitely with an increase from $20 to $25. There is higher cost for families with the accommodation allowance for tertiary students closed to new applicants. There is an end to land tax relief for shack owners and pensioners, another broken Labor promise. National parks and land title fees are increased and the one-off electricity price concession for last year is not being repeated.

In comparison, the only real assistance is $1.5 million for an emergency relief fund. That is $3 for every man, woman and child in Tasmania and will not even buy a carton of milk. Despite all these weasel words, the Greens-Labor Government is not addressing the spiralling cost of living. Instead, this Budget put even greater pressure on families.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that power prices will increase by a further 11 per cent from next month. The cost of electricity has now gone up by 20 per cent this year alone, 50 per cent in the past six years and there is another 20 per cent increase forecast over the next two years. This also brings the increases in power prices to nearly 26 per cent since Labor promised, at the last election, that it would cap power prices. It means for the average household that the will have to find over $500 more for their power bills each year.

The Premier has even admitted in Parliament that she believes one single water and sewerage corporation would be cheaper, and that competition in the energy market would put downward pressure on the cost of living, yet she refuses to act on it. As the Advocate has stated in a recent editorial, the spiralling cost of living is not just about the poor anymore. It is about working families, the working poor, and the response of this Government has only been tokenism. When launching this year's Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal the Premier said about the struggle of individuals to make ends meet financially, 'We are leading the nation in seeking practical ways in which we can help Tasmanians to get by during tough times'. Well I would like to know where and how this Budget has demonstrated that the Government is leading the nation, as well as when and what exactly are the practical ways the Government will be assisting Tasmanians. They have appointed a parliamentary secretary. However what has the parliamentary secretary done to decrease the cost of living for all Tasmanians so far? What advice or reports have been provided to the Premier about the cost of living since she has been in this role? In response to the cost-of-living report the Premier has said that the Government would need to wait for the full cost-of-living report before actions can be taken. That report will not be ready until August, and as there is no money in the Budget for any new initiatives as a result of this report it means that all Tasmanians will be waiting for another year at least for any substantive relief.

In April the Government ripped $270 000 out of the Food Security Council, money that should have gone to organisations delivering food rescue and food security to Tasmanians in need. The Premier said the $270 000 taken out of food security would be 'reprioritised to maximise the effectiveness of limited funds in a tight budget situation and that it would be spent on a range of programs to address the rising cost of living'. The fact is that the Food Security Council was already addressing the rising cost of living by providing families and children with food. Last week I said that I expected we would see this $270 000 recycled in the Budget and dressed up as new money to address food security and cost of living by a new, kind, caring and connected Labor Government. Surprise, surprise, the Government did exactly that, albeit with a $30 000 increase that between three organisations will not go far.

I would just like to remind the Government once again about the economic benefit of what organisations like SecondBite are to the State. The food collected by SecondBite is redistributed at an average cost per meal of approximately 60 cents. By providing $200 000 to an organisation like SecondBite, the Government gets 334 000 healthy meals. On the other hand, if the Government handed out $1 million to provide food vouchers for families to spend, at an average cost of $20 a meal you would only get 50 000 meals. Therefore the Tasmanian taxpayer receives far better value for its dollar by their money being spent on food-security programs than it does in handing out food vouchers, but this awareness is not evident in this Budget.

The community sector are worried. Every day they see an increasing number of people calling on them for help, with families juggling escalating prices of rent, utilities, food and other services. Aurora's hardship policy is welcome for those in need, but it is not going to be enough. The Social Inclusion Commissioner has said that the figures in his cost-of-living strategy due in August show an increasingly bleak picture for the State. In fact he says that numbers seeking emergency relief have almost doubled in the past five years from 13 097 people to 25 466 people, and first-time clients using such services has jumped 757 per cent in the past five years. That is the Labor-Greens legacy to Tasmanians, a more than 750 per cent increase in the number of Tasmanians needing emergency relief. That is simply appalling.

The working poor are a very real phenomenon in Tasmania today, and the risk of no government action will see even greater pressure placed on relief agencies. The flow-on impact cannot be ignored either. If children go hungry, they cannot learn or thrive and will have health issues. If families cannot provide for themselves then family stress and even violence or mental-health problems can all manifest, and perhaps even suicide. This Government could have done so much more in this Budget than what it has done to address cost-of-living pressures. As the Social Inclusion Commissioner has said, the risk of taking no action is far too high for too many in this State.

The closure of schools has also come as a complete surprise to school communities in my own electorate of Franklin, especially when they received $3.7 million funding under the Building the Education Revolution. It is clear that Mr McKim has abandoned the guarantee that the Liberals extracted from the Greens-Labor Government that there would be no school closures without the consent of the broader school community. Instead he has embraced the 'shoot first, ask questions later' approach, with consultations which sound like pure spin. How will closing Geilston Bay and Dover high schools and Warrane and Franklin primary schools improve educational outcomes? How much money will be saved by these four schools' closures? What will happen to the teachers and staff at these schools? What criteria were used to select these four schools? I am also very concerned that with Dover District High School and Franklin Primary School closing that these rural and regional communities will be decimated as families are forced to leave. Local schools are the hub of any regional community and to close a school can destroy a town.

Parents from these four threatened school communities have contacted me in disbelief at how their schools are slated for closure and others were not. The sad reality is that many of these schools will have to close simply because this Greens-Labor Government is not capable of managing the Budget.

Once again this Government has dropped the ball on children, people living with a disability, housing stress and the cost of living. Everyday things are getting worse for Tasmanians and many feel there is no hope. The Budget is in a mess. Premier Giddings is telling Tasmanians that it is not her fault but it is falling GST revenues, but Tasmanians are waking up to the fact that it is Labor and the Greens that have made the mess. The Government over the last six years has spent over $1 billion more than was budgeted for. Even at the time of the global financial crisis it failed to rein in its expenditure. The Government is the architect of Tasmania's financial demise and now it is asking Tasmanians to take the pain. Every Tasmanian household knows about the difficulty in balancing a home budget, of managing their income versus the bills while providing for the essentials of food, rent, health care, clothing et cetera.

The Government, however, has continued to spend more than it earns and now that it realises it cannot do that anymore it is taking drastic action that will affect frontline services in Children and Human Services. Labor and the Greens also want to slash the jobs of nurses, police and teachers, close schools and make the cost of living worse. In contrast, the Liberal alternative is to protect frontline jobs and essential services whilst providing job security for Tasmanians, with no forced sackings of public servants. The Liberals' plan also creates a new $60 million fund to keep schools open whilst addressing the growing year 10 retention gap.

As well, we are committed to introducing full retail competition into the energy market, as well as joining the four water and sewerage corporations into one to put downward pressure on prices and the cost of living. Our alternative budget is about getting the priorities right for today and providing a vision for tomorrow. I commend my colleague and leader, Will Hodgman, on finding a way forward that addresses the very real financial challenges that Labor and the Greens have put us into, whilst delivering a better bottom line and essential public services to Tasmania.