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2003-04 State Budget Analysis
Contents
Another Michael Egan Budget has come and gone
by Gary Moore
The NSW Treasurer probably feels pleased with himself, with strong revenue growth pointing to a return to Budget surplus before the 2007 NSW election. Public sector wage increases have been paid for largely by the last puffs of the previously supercharged property market and job cuts in Departments which are being restructured.
As reported in July NCOSS News, the Budget papers contained, in their detail, some disturbing figures in several small but important program areas. NCOSS has just received a reply from the Treasurer to our 12 questions about cuts to human services.
As the details of the key social policy and human services departmental Budgets are examined in the following articles, two trends emerge:
Later in 2004, NCOSS will be launching a proposal which outlines a set of linked objectives to improve the well being of NSW citizens and communities and a straightforward means of measuring progress against these objectives.
As large sections of the NSW public and the media continue to question the performance of many State Government agencies and services, we urge Bob Carr and Michael Egan to take the people of NSW into their confidence and, like other jurisdictions in Australia and the Blair Government in the UK, release a vision and action plan for NSW against which Budget and other performance can be examined.
Aboriginal Affairs
by Linda Frow
The overall budget for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs is now $49m, an increase of $6.4m in 2004-05 over the revised figures for 2003-04.
This funding is mostly directed through the Aboriginal Communities Development Program which aims to raise the health and living standards of 22 selected priority Aboriginal communities in NSW. Most of the increase is due to the planned annual escalation of this program.
The Budget papers announce project funding of $40m over four years for the Two Ways Together Package, which has been in the making for some time as a multi-agency response to the Aboriginal Affairs Plan.
Detail in the Budget Statement indicates small amounts of funding increases across departments. The largest is $3.2m to target 2,000 children to assist learning in primary and provide support in secondary school.
It also includes:
Some of this is re-announced.
Team: Trish Frail-Gibbs/ Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women's Legal Centre, Alan Cohen/ Workventures Surry Hills, Sheree Freeburn/ Carers NSW
Ageing, Disability and Home Care
by Christine Regan
Despite announcing an increase of $110m over last year's budget expenditure, Minister for Disability Services, the Hon Carmel Tebbutt, admitted that this translated into only $62m increase on last year's expenditure. This was due to the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (DADHC) overspends last year. The Minister further confirmed that, aside from Home and Community Care (HACC), all new spending initiatives were previously announced in either the December mid-term Budget Review or the April mini-Budget.
Given that, due to continuing realignment, it is not possible to fully compare this DADHC Budget to last year, DADHC could improve its reporting along the lines of DoCS's comprehensive summary report on Budget initiatives.
Disability
While this new expenditure is very welcome and necessary, it provides little relief for the devastating unmet need for disability support services in NSW.
The April mini-Budget introduced $2.7m for families with children with disability, responding directly to the recommendations in the adverse Ombudsman's Report on DADHC's performance on support for children and young people with disability and their families in out of home care.
The $3.2m to increase the responsiveness of respite care services was announced in the mini-Budget. The NCOSS Pre-Budget Submission (PBS) recommended $3.2m for an additional 400 flexible respite places in NSW. The Minister announced $3m of assistance to people with disabilities in boarding houses, which provides only a continuance of the contracts for the Active Linking Initiative (support to residents) and on-going access to primary health services. A further $3m has been allocated to relieve viability pressures on services with historically low funding levels.
The $10.3m to the Service Access System will enable DADHC to respond more effectively to people with disability in crisis and should mitigate cuts to subsequent and agreed support plans for people with disability and families.
NCOSS welcomes the additional $12.4m to the Adult Training, Learning and Support (ATLAS) program, for developmental day programs for 588 school leavers in 2004. This Budget, for the first time in many years, announces projected spending of $54m over four years. Until now, families and providers had to await announcements in the State Budget for support to school leavers with disability. NCOSS notes, however, that there has been no increase to levels of support for ATLAS participants as recommended in the NCOSS PBS. The Minister wants to develop new service options for young people who do not transit to employment within the two years of ATLAS. An Expression of Interest (EOI) process, seeking innovative options, is to be advertised soon.
DADHC reports that $10m will be allocated towards the historical deficit in DADHC direct accommodation services. This Budget spending overrun has wavered around $20m to $30m each year over the past 6 years.
Significant capital expenditure of $28.2m was announced in this Budget comprising $5m for refurbishing and maintaining the DADHC asset base, $15.9m on the current stage of closures to large residential institutions and $7.3m to re-develop the Client Information System within DADHC.
The 2004-05 Budget effectively provides few, if any, new supported accommodation places desperately needed by people with disabilities in NSW. The NCOSS Pre-Budget Submission recommended an additional 300 places next year as well as 100 extra Attendant Care Places and specific packages of support for people with brain injury. There were apparently no new funding initiatives, as recommended in the NCOSS PBS, to address the needs of people with disabilities who are ageing, younger people in nursing homes, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with disability or offenders with cognitive disability.
Home and Community Care
The Home and Community Care (HACC) program provides basic support services essential to maintain many older people, people with disabilities and carers in their own homes. The HACC program funds meals on wheels, transport, home nursing, personal care and domestic assistance, home modifications and maintenance and support to people with complex care needs.
NSW continues to be the lowest expenditure state per capita on HACC.
The NSW Government has met the Commonwealth HACC growth of 8.1%. This includes an indexation of 2.1% and releases $31m growth for the next funding round. It is expected that some of this growth will be directed towards HACC special needs groups in the coming year. While this growth is necessary and welcome, it falls far short of the 20% increase recommended in the NCOSS Pre-Budget Submission.
Minister Tebbutt is negotiating with the Australian Government to hasten the approval of State HACC Plans, thereby reducing the recent unacceptably long delays to funding while also working on DADHC's own processes to roll out the HACC allocations more quickly and effectively.
The Minister admitted that the HACC program was underspent by $24m last year, explaining that this resulted from the 2002-03 and 2003-04 HACC plans effectively being rolled out in one year - due to the delayed signing of the earlier plan. DADHC intends, pending Commonwealth approval, to apply the $24m non-recurrent funding towards HACC capital improvement.
The Home Care Service (HCS) has a small increase of 1.2% but will not maintain its present hours of service delivery. NCOSS is alarmed at the reported reduction of 293,000 HCS hours from last year. The Director-General explained that, due to the late roll out of 2002-03 HACC State Plan, HCS was given extra hours to make up the shortfall and that HCS simply exceeded its hours in relation to resources last year.
Ageing
The Ageing Program reports an $800,000 fall in budgeted expenditure from last year. Following funding cuts of $300,000 from the previous year, this represents a 21% funding reduction in the Program in only two years. Whilst this is described by the Treasurer as reflecting historic funding patterns, it must also call into question DADHC's commitment to the needs of older people in NSW. Despite the creation of the improved Ageing Issues Directorate, there are real concerns at the capacity for response and leadership in this regard.
Teams
Community Services
by Linda Frow
Despite the Treasurer's announcement in his Budget Speech that this was a budget for children and families, the $100m extra for the Department of Community Services (DoCS) translates on the ground into the $30m expected increase to service delivery arising from the continuing rollout of the 2002 enhancement package. Much of the $30.2m additional funding is earmarked to the Department for additional caseworker, legal, and other support staff positions
Both the Minister and the Director General were upfront about the realities of the Budget in the briefing they gave. Of the $100.5m increase in the overall budget, (up to $903.7m from $803.2m in 2003-04 and $839.1m revised 2003-04), some $22.5m goes to pay for the Department's contribution to Businesslink, and around $30m accrues as a result of the transfer of programs from other government departments into DoCS, including the Area Assistance Scheme, Community Solutions and Families First. A further $15.4m is to cover salary and other cost increases.
Indexation for both the Department and its funded services is only 1.8% for 2004-05 and will mean that services will struggle to meet the $19 per week State wage increase flow on, not to mention other rising costs such as insurance and rents.
The Budget briefing paper from the Department of Community Services gives a breakdown of its external funding.
(Note: external funding includes Businesslink and the Department's own foster carers - it does not all go to NGOs)
Some of the interesting observations to be made on the figures, in the table below, and are summarised in the following sections.
Out-of-Home Care
In 2003-04, DoCS overspent by $30m on out-of-home care, mostly in the area of individual support agreements, but there is only $9m additional allocated to out-of-home care in this budget - a gap of $21m. The Department acknowledges that this is an issue and the main risk area to the DoCS budget, but claims that there are strategies in place to get it under control. The Expression of Interest (EoI) process for high and complex needs children and young people is presumably the first step but it is hard to see how spending can be reduced so drastically over one year.
SAAP
Indexation for the Supported Accommodation Assisstance Program (SAAP) remains unclear because the Commonwealth element is as yet unknown. It was stated in the budget briefing that renegotiation of the SAAP agreement (SAAP V) will be the place for another look at the SAAP objectives, priorities and funding.
The outputs in the budget papers suggest that SAAP services will be expected to increase services by 1,000 clients to 27,000. We already know that around half the people trying to access SAAP services cannot be accommodated and this situation will continue unless more resources are allocated to the program.
Children's Services
Whilst it is unclear from the figures in any of the papers, there is apparently $3.7m indexation and other project funding for children's services.
This includes a small amount for training around the new children's services regulations.
Disappointment has been expressed by the sector about the continuing failure to fund outside school hours care services to meet national standards and to develop regulations for school age services.
Community Services Grants Program (CSGP)
Concerns about the lack of increase to core funding for CSGP services and a seeming drop in the youth program funding were expressed at the budget briefing. The drop in youth funding may relate to the ending of some programs such as those funded from Commonwealth NIDS program (alcohol and other drugs).
In response to concerns about CSGP core funding the Director-General, for the first time, gave a commitment to begin working with the sector to build a case for enhancement to CSGP, although he warned this would take time and was not guaranteed to succeed in convincing Treasury.
The DoCS Budget has now been reorganised into four main program areas - Community Services, Prevention and Early Intervention, Statutory Child Protection and Out-of-Home Care. Not every item was in the right program section in this budget and we will view with interest the next budget paper alignments after a full year of the newly constituted Communities Division.
Teams:
Corrective Services
by Bill Pope
This department seems to have no trouble in gaining increases in its budget, as the government locks up more and more of its citizens. In the last year the average daily inmate population increased from 7,900 to 8,300.
Budget for 2004-05 is now $703m recurrent, up $44m, or 5.7 %
Of this, $515m is for containment of inmates, up $30m. Compare this to the part of budget for rehabilitative services: $114m for Assessment, Classification and Development of inmates. This is an increase of $9m on the 2003-04 revised budget, but there was under spending of $18m on the 2003-04 budget of $123m, so this indicates a decrease of $9m. The Treasurer explains this as a change in accounting practices and claims that staffing levels will increase in 2004.05. $74m is allocated to alternatives to custody, up by $6m.
There is $110m spending on capital works - about the same as the previous year. Assets now amount to $1.2 billion.
In the section on Strategic Directions there are listed plans for new initiatives for women with dual diagnosis, and expansion of services for offenders with an intellectual disability or mental health disorders, but there are no detailed figures on these.
The Community Grants Program is up slightly to $2.5m, although it was under spent last year by $100,000. It is only 0.3% of the Department's total budget. There is no significant increase, and not much commitment to the program. On the other hand the Department says it intends, in the next five to ten years, to provide transitional residential programs and half-way houses, due to lack of accommodation and program places in the community. It appears that the Department is going into direct service provision for ex-prisoners, which is perhaps not the best and most cost-effective model. As it is, some ex-inmate accommodation is not even funded by the Department, but by SAAP.
Team: Alison Churchill (CRC), Kat Armstrong (Justice Action)
Education and Training
by Linda Frow
The Education portfolio provided the only major surprise in the budget with a commitment to fully fund the teachers' and administration staff pay rises. With $56m anticipated in the previous budget and a further $534m from Treasury, the Government claims it has been able to leave the education budget intact. The total cost for school and TAFE teachers is $590m in 2004-05 rising to $696m in 2005-06.
In terms of total expenses on education and training, funding is up 5.6% in 2004-05 over the revised figures for 2003-04 - $9.2billion compared to $8.7billion. This does not take into account an expected CPI of 2.5%.
Schools
Staffing in primary schools is up despite a drop in student numbers, reflecting the government's continued commitment to meeting class size reduction targets.
There is a continuing commitment to lower class sizes and fund professional development as per previous announcements.
Total expenses in primary education are up by 7.2% and in secondary education by 6.3%. It is again worrying to note that these rates are lower than the increase to non-government schools in the order of 8.9%. NSW subsidisation of private schools is now in the order of $660m.
There is a substantial increase in pre- school spending (including $3m recurrent and almost $12m extra capital funding) which represents the rollout of the 21 new preschools previously announced. However, it should be noted that in 2004-05 this only delivers 100 extra preschool places.
Of some concern is the brief mention in the budget papers of the Priority Schools Funding Program which is simply noted as continuing. It is the only program given a mention that has no figures attached to it. NCOSS will be attempting to clarify the funding for this program.
The way budget papers are now aggregated so that individual program items do not appear makes tracking difficult and makes a mockery of departmental and Treasury accountability.
Given the salaries increase, it is difficult to see if there is any impact from the recent restructure of the Department and staffing cuts. There are certainly fewer staffing positions in the secondary area despite a slight increase in student numbers.
TAFE and related services
After five years of cuts, this year starts to turn around with an increase in total TAFE Education expenses of $33m, an increase of about 2.4% which almost matches the predicted CPI. Capital expenditure on TAFE is up by $8m (11%). The main reasons for the increases are Industry Training Services (up $15m on actual expenditure in 2003-04), capital expenditure, teacher salaries and revenue measures (fees, charges and rents and leases).
The outlook for students and staff is not so healthy. Enrolments are predicted to drop by 1% (6000 students) at a time when increases (of about 4%) were expected. There is some evidence that the drop in student numbers is more substantial than this - down by 8% or 24,000 students on expected enrolments because of the fee increases in 2004. Equivalent full-time student figures are also down, as are staff positions (by 490 positions or 2.9%). This results in a large decrease in TAFE operating expenses - down from $58.985m in the 2003-04 revised figures to $32.838m in 2004-05.
The impact of TAFE fee increases are already clear and the budget does nothing to assist those students who are now being effectively excluded from further education and training.
Adult and Community Education services are down by almost $4m on last years actual expenditure and the Mature Workers Program and Skilled Migrant Workers Strategy are gone despite ongoing lobbying since the mini-Budget.
Team: Phil Bradley; David Giblin, Linda Frow
This year's NSW Health budget was, to a large extent, a replay of the mini budget Health announcements, made on 6 April 2004. Overall the net cost of services for the 2004-05 financial year is $8,702,961- a real growth of 5.7% on last year's revised net budget. (Please note that all amounts are based on the net cost of services.)
Information about funding to health NGOs remains difficult to determine with a change in categories used in the budget papers from last year. In the last financial year NGOs were described as Voluntary Organisations. This financial year, Voluntary Organisations also refers to a budget line from last financial year called 'Grants to Agencies'. There remains no breakdown of individual program area funding to the various sectors apart from mental health and Aboriginal health.
In its budget briefing NSW Health announced that there had been a $2.1m increase in funding to NGOs, from $76m in 2003-04 to $78.1m in 2004-05, which includes the 2% indexation from Treasury. However inflation in 2004-05 is expected to be 2.5% and increases to salaries an additional 3.75%, leaving the Health NGO budget well short of expected costs.
NCOSS is concerned about a significant decrease in funding to Health NGOs identified in the budget papers. In the section on Ambulatory, Primary and (General) Community Based Services, within which most NGOs are funded, the 2003-04 budget for voluntary organisations was $86m.
However the revised budget shows an expenditure of only $74m and the 2004-05 budget lists expenditure at $80m. NCOSS has requested information from NSW Health as to why there was a $12m under spend in 03/04 and an approximately $6m (or 6.85%) decrease in funding from the previous financial year.
Mental Health received a much-needed $241m in funding, announced in the mini-Budget, and NCOSS welcomes the Government's commitment to improving mental health services. However, in its Pre-Budget Submission NCOSS called on the Government to increase the recurrent mental health budget by $178.7m per annum with a higher proportion to community based services and additional funding for social and vocational programs. A large proportion of the additional money is going into acute care. While acute care is important it has overshadowed rehabilitation and extended care in the community. Ongoing rehabilitation and support in the community for people with a mental health issue is essential in order to prevent what has been termed the 'revolving door.' That is people being discharged into the community with little or no support and ending up back in acute care.
Mental Health NGOs received a $6m increase in funding from 2003-04 and a real growth of 10.3% on the revised net budget. NCOSS is uncertain whether this is additional money or an allocation of the Housing and Supported Accommodation Initiative growth funding, indicated in the budget announcements. There is also an additional $2.5m for organisations involved in research and raising awareness of mental health issues.
NCOSS requested funding for an additional seven Court Liaison programs in its Pre-Budget Submission and is pleased to see the increased funding being given to Forensic mental health services. An additional $500,000 goes to expand the Court Liaison program across an additional five areas and $1m to establish Community mental health care and case managers for forensic patients.
There will be an additional $1.4m to increase Aboriginal mental health services by employing additional Aboriginal mental health workers, including a youth worker at the Redfern Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service and a Mental Health Coordinator at the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council.
Overall the mental health budget has increased by 9.5% and mental health capital works projects announced in previous budgets and the mini-Budget continue. NCOSS encourages the Government to continue this commitment to improved funding for mental health services in future years.
Aboriginal health received a real increase of 5.6% on last year's net revised budget; with a net expenditure this year of $44.12m and NCOSS welcomes this improvement in expenditure. The budget papers indicated an apparent reduction in funding to Aboriginal NGOs. However, following representations by NCOSS, the Treasurer has advised that the budget papers were in error. In fact, total expenses for Aboriginal NGOs will be 8.178m in 2004-05. This is still a decrease from 8.195 m on 2003-04 due to 'rollovers and one grants last year' according to the Treasurer.
Rural Health increased from $2.6billion in 2003-04 to $2.78 billion in 2004-05, with most announcements being a continuation of work and programs previously announced. As rural health is not listed separately in the budget papers it is difficult to see if any of this money is going to other health priorities as identified by rural communities in Southern and Far West NSW at NCOSS rural consultations held last year.
This includes:
The Health Care Complaints Commission has received an increase in funding of 11% and funding has been allocated to the Clinical Excellence Commission, to improve standards of care and complaints processes within NSW Health.
The 2004-05 financial year sees a continuation of the high level of expenditure on acute hospital based services of approximately $4.9billion. NSW Health describes acute care as improving the health and managing the risks of illness and injury through diagnosis and treatment. However Population Health, which promotes health and reduces incidences of preventable disease and disability by improving access to opportunities and pre-requisites for good health (NSW Health definition) and Primary and Community Based Services, which improve, maintain or restore health through health promotion, early intervention, assessment, therapy and treatment for clients in a home or community setting (NSW Health definition), are only funded at a combined approximation of $1billion.
While there will always be the need for acute services it would seem, and many argue, that by increasing the funding at the prevention and post-treatment end, the costs to the community and to the Government could be greatly reduced.
(At the time of writing, NSW Health had only just received NCOSS questions on a further breakdown of the health budget, for oral health, health related transport and other programs. This information will be available in the next newsletter).
Team: Denele Crozier (Women's Health NSW) and Samantha Edmonds (NCOSS). Thank you to: Jenna Bateman (Mental Health Coordinating Council) for assistance with the mental health budget).
The Housing Budget demonstrates the ongoing failure of the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement, and the governments involved, to deal with the increasing housing affordability problem in NSW.
This year's total social housing budget is $622.3m , down from $642.9m last year.
With a net addition of just 222 housing units expected in 2004-05, we are not only not meeting existing demand - the 85,000 on the Housing Department waiting list - but are failing to deal with the issue of a rapidly growing capital city.
The proportion of social housing stock needs to grow at the same rate as the population and each year NSW falls further behind. The preference for leasing over new stock continues to exacerbate the problem.
The only increases appear to be small increases to Aboriginal Housing, with Public Housing Supply down by $1m, Public Housing Asset Management down substantially by $5m from last year's budget and $28m on the revised budget; the Community Housing Program static; and Other Housing programs down $14m. Some of the decrease is said to relate to funding brought forward for State Housing Assistance grants in 2003-04 and the withholding of Commonwealth funds pending the signing of the Commonwealth State Bilateral agreement.
NCOSS has consistently pointed to the need to redirect the profits of the housing boom to affordable low-income housing. Whilst the government assists new home purchasers through the abolition of stamp duty, hardly any of its $700m vendor transfer tax is directed to new public and community housing.
Team: Mary Perkins, Adam Farrar
Juvenile Justice
There is little new in the Juvenile Justice budget although there is an increase (6% or $7.5m budget to budget, 4.9% on the revised figures.) The total expenditure is now $130.6m.
The increase seems to be largely related to employee expenses and may include the staged transfer from NSW Police of the transport and supervision of juvenile detainees.
There is $3.8m in 2004-05 under the Government Plan of Action on Drugs (not new), and there has been some transfer of funding arrangements for community organisations to this program.
Capital expenditure ($37.9m) continues to be a feature of the Department's budget as work continues on the Reiby and Cobham juvenile justice centres and the young women's centre at Lidcombe, although it is down on 2003-04.
Attorney-General's Department
Although much of this department is not analysed here, there is an important new initiative to expand the successful Circle Sentencing Initiative aimed at reducing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in NSW prisons and juvenile detention centres. At a cost of $2.6m, the program has been expanded to include Bourke, Lismore, Kempsey, Tamworth and Armidale.
Community Legal Centres (CLCs)
What appears to be a cut to CLCs in the papers themselves turns out to be an error. Additional funding to meet SACS award payments and indexation was not factored in to the budget papers but we understand it will be paid, at least for 2004-05.
The NSW Combined Community Legal Centres' Group has expressed disappointment that there has been no extra funding allocated towards specialist programs, for example the Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women's Legal Centre or the Hawkesbury Nepean Aboriginal Legal Access Project.
Legal Aid
The Budget allocation of $145.1m is an increase on 2003-04 budget but decrease on 2003-04 revised figures ($145.9m). The figures are based on expectations that the Commonwealth grant will not increase, so this may explain the discrepancy between the budget and revised figures. However at the moment it appears to be a 3% cut in real terms.
There are small increases of $3m to state funded criminal law, $2m to state funded family law.but this is catch up money that does not match CPI and both are tied to increased workloads.
Domestic Violence
There are 33 women's domestic violence court assistance schemes (DVAS) throughout NSW in 54 local courts. Since the publication of the bdget papers the Treasurer has advised NCOS the Legal Aid Commission has revised the amount of grant funding to DVAS.
Funding for 2004-05 will increase by $77,000. This is a 2.4% nominal or 0.4% real increase on last year. However it is unclear whether the number of local committees will still decline from 74 to 70 as indicated in the budget papers.
Victims Compensation is $2.8m down against revised, back down to $67m and the number of counselling hours have been reduced from 22,000 to 20,000.
Teams:
Transport Services
by Dinesh Wadiwel
At least on paper, transport would appear to be one of the few winners from the 2004 - 05 State Budget. Total allocation for the Ministry of Transport (MoT) in 2004-05 is $2.66 billion. This is an increase of 6.77% on the allocation for 2003-04, or 4.27% real growth (allowing for 2.5% indexation) in funding.
We should exercise a degree of care with this figure though. Since MoT significantly exceeded its allocation in 2003-04, there is only an increase of 2.49% in allocation in relation to spending last year, or, in real terms, a decrease of 0.01%.
Funding for roads has increased by a similar proportion. The budget papers report a 6.72% increase in funding to the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA). Interestingly, because the RTA overspent its allocation in 2003-04, it has also effectively received a 0.04% decrease in real funding, assuming it spending is within budget in 2004-05.
Rail
CityRail would appear to be the big winner in the 2004-05 budget with an additional $350m allocated for commuter rail services in metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, while there has been some new money invested in this area, it is difficult to locate because of the various re-announcements across the transport area. The $1 billion commitment over six years to the Rail Clearways program is one example. This has been a longstanding project. In March this year, Bob Carr provided an 'iron-clad' guarantee that the project would be finished within five years.
There has been acceleration in the program to replace old rail carriages in the CityRail network, with a commitment of $1.5 billion dollars over six years (rather than 10 years) to replace 498 rail carriages. There is undoubtedly some new investment here, although the potential cancellation of 'Stage 3' of Millennium train orders will free up some money in the near future.
Easy Access station upgrades are happening at Gymea, Gordon, Thirroul, Kingsgrove, Blaxland, Helensburgh, Bulli, Lakemba, Mortdale and Wyong. Unfortunately, Redfern station has once again missed out on an upgrade, despite a great deal of community pressure for this high volume station to receive an upgrade.
CountryLink
Information from MoT indicates that there has been a marginal increase in allocation for CountryLink services, from $96m in 2003-04 to $96.3m in 2004-05. This translates to a 0.3% increase in funding or a 2.2% decrease in allocation in real terms. This may reflect planned changes to services: the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service was cut during May 2004, and it is anticipated that other rail services will be threatened with closure later this year, when the December deadline is reached for the review of local lines.
Bus Services
State Transit Authority (STA) gains $237.6m in funding from the NSW Government for bus services, including School Subsidies Transport Scheme (SSTS) and concession payments. This is a $22.9m increase in funding or a 10.67% (or 8.17% real) increase in funding allocation. Figures from the STA indicate that there will be a very healthy $20.1m increase in funding for STA services, or a 28.79% real increase in funding.
There has been an allocation for new low-floored accessible buses. The budget papers claim that $69m of the $89.9m allocation for STA capital works will be directed towards 160 new buses for Sydney, although 100 of these buses will be delivered over a two year period.
Private bus operators receive subsidies for transport services largely through the SSTS. Private bus operators gain a boost in expenditure of $14.8m in 2004-05 to $434.1m. This translates to a 3.6% or a 1.1% real increase in subsidy for services provided by the industry.
Total expenditure on School Subsidies Transport Scheme (for STA, Private operators and individuals) is up from $658 m to $667.1 m. This equates to a very small 1.4% increase in funding or a 1% decrease in real terms. This appears in line with previous year increases.
Integrated Transport Information Service (131 500)
One of the useful initiatives in the transport area was the establishment of the 131 500 integrated information service. This service has helped to address the fragmentation of transport service provision, allowing passengers to plan trips across different providers, and provide feedback and complaints about specific operators through a single mechanism. There has been some community concern that the NSW Government has not made a significant commitment to integrated transport information. There are indications that these concerns are in some ways well founded, given that the budget papers report that the Ministry of Transport significantly under spent on this line item. During 2003-04, $11.5m was allocated for this service yet only $8.5m was spent. The allocation for 2004-05 for the Integrated Transport Information Service is lower at $7.5m, equating to around a 35% cut in allocation for this item. NCOSS is yet to confirm how this apparent reduction in allocation will affect the service.
Community Transport
The largest funding for community transport occurs through the Home and Community Care (HACC) program. The total allocation for HACC Transport in 2004-05 is $18.9m. This equates to a healthy 17% increase in funding for this program, or 14.5% in real terms. There has not been similar growth applied to other community transport programs within the MoT portfolio. The Community Transport Program and the Area Assistance Scheme have received allocations of $2.7m and $619,000 respectively in 2004-05, with only 2% growth applied to these areas in comparison to previous year budgets. Some funding for services is also available through the NSW Transport for Health program and the Isolated Patients Transport and Accommodation Scheme. NCOSS is seeking to confirm funding levels for these programs.
Funding for the Taxi Transport Subsidy Scheme has increased by approximately 9% (6.5% in real terms), with an allocation in 2004-05 of $17m.
This year's budget includes funding for new Regional Coordinators, Community Transport, which are being placed in 11 regions outside of the Sydney Metropolitan area. $6.6m has been allocated over three years, with $2.2m allocated in the first year. Funding will cover the cost of employing the coordinators, and include some funds for local transport projects.
Parking Space Levy
The Parking Space Levy is a NSW Government revenue measure, aimed at decreasing the use of private motor vehicles in busy urban districts. At present, funds gained through the Parking Space Levy go into a dedicated 'Public Transport Facilities Fund'. The aim of the fund is for the 'development of infrastructure to encourage the use of public transport by making it more accessible'. In previous years the fund has been used to construct car parks next to rail stations, build bus/rail interchanges and rebuild ferry wharfs.
This year's Budget papers report that the Parking Space Levy contributes to two major works for 2004-05: a $15m project for Parramatta and Chatswood interchanges as part of the Epping- Chatswood Rail Link and $20m for bus stations, bike lockers and commuter car parks for the North West Transitway.
This could be seen as an irregular use of the fund, particularly in the case of the North West Transitway project, which involves the construction of facilities at least some of which would normally expect to be included in a regular capital works allocation.
Rural and Regional NSW
The big losers this year will be rural and regional NSW, which will not see any significant expansion in transport services. While the decision to employ regional transport coordinators should be applauded, and despite ongoing spending on roads (which will no doubt be enhanced by the Federal Government Auslink plan), the Government has not made a significant investment in expanding transport services in country NSW.
Given the massive $350m boost for transport services that will benefit largely Sydney residents, it certainly appears 'penny-pinching' that the NSW Government should have chosen to close the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service in May this year for a mere $5m saving, and be considering closing other CountryLink rail services in coming years.
A significant investment in improving public and community transport services for rural and regional areas would help to create much needed links to services and employment, particularly for people who do not have ready access to private motor vehicles.
Team: Christine Laurence (Western Sydney Community Forum), Phil Drew (Community Transport Oganisation), Chloe Mason (NCOSS Transport Policy Advice Group)
These articles were originaly published in NCOSS News (August 2004) - the NCOSS newsletter for NCOSS members. You can subscribe to NCOSS News by becoming a member [membership info]
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