NSW Election 2003

Election 2003: Looking ahead
by Alan Kirkland
March 2003

The re-election of the Carr Government provides certainty in relation to many promises that had been welcomed by the non-government sector. At the same time, it helps to define the challenges that face us over the next four years.

One of the most important issues for NCOSS members will be the certainty that the DoCS funding package, announced in December 2002, will proceed. It was a shock in the last days of the election campaign to learn that the Coalition, if elected, intended to use these funds to cover promises in other areas. Although we had not necessarily expected that a Coalition government would allocate these funds in the same way within DoCS, there had been no warning that they would in fact be withdrawn.

Other processes commenced in the Government's last term that remain to be completed include the Review of Grants Administration and the development of the Compact, or NGO Relationships Policy. These two processes have the potential to achieve fundamental changes in the relationship between non-government organisations and the Government.

Within the Government, the moves towards greater decision making at the regional level and greater integration of services have enormous potential for disadvantaged people and communities, although the complexity of these tasks means that it will be some time before we see substantial outcomes.

The re-election of the Government for a third term does, however, draw attention to other social justice issues on which little or no progress has been made in the past 8 years.

One of these issues, which NCOSS sought to highlight during the election campaign, is the affordability of transport for people on low incomes. The current system of transport concessions should be an embarrassment to the Government. It has not been updated for several decades and has failed to keep up with changes in transport needs or the Centrelink payment system. The net effect of this neglect is a system that fails to benefit many people on extremely low incomes, such as many young unemployed people. The other key failing of the system is that it provides inferior assistance to people reliant on privately-operated transport, which is the only form of transport in large areas of Sydney and in most of the rest of the State. Although the Government instigated a review of transport concessions in 1999, no report has been released and no changes have been made.

Another issue that received considerable attention during the election campaign was preschools. Although both the Government announced some additional funding this will have limited impact on the problems of affordability for parents on low incomes. The simple fact is that New South Wales has been slow to accept what other State governments accepted some years ago – that preschool education is the responsibility of the State. While the continued rollout of State-run preschools linked to the public education system is positive, the overwhelming majority of preschools in New South Wale are community-based and until they receive serious attention from government, far too many children will miss out on preschool education.

While there were some election funding announcements for disability services, mostly arising from the Spinal Injury Forum, these in no way approached the level of additional funding announced in other human service portfolios. Although there were increases in disability funding early in the last term of the Government, the benefits of those increases will be lost unless funding is able to keep pace with changes in demand. In addition, those increases tended to be directed at the crisis end of the spectrum. Just as the Government made a strategic decision to devote substantial new resources to early intervention and prevention in DoCs, it is time to start thinking about building a stronger base of early intervention services for people with disabilities. This will require a substantial injection of funds into disability services over the next few years.

Another very big issue for the Government is the future of social housing in New South Wales. The Commonwealth's determination to reduce its funding commitment – despite clear evidence of growing need for affordable housing - combined with declining rental income as the public housing system has become increasingly targeted at people on Centrelink payments - creates some enormous financial challenges. Additional State Government funding will undoubtedly be required. As ACOSS and housing peaks have identified, there is also a need to attract greater private sector contributions to affordable housing. The reaction against plans for the redevelopment of the Erskineville estate last year suggests that the Department has not quite struck the right balance between private and community interests but finding this balance in the next few years will be crucial to the viability of social housing in New South Wales.

The certainty provided by fixed, four-year terms of government is intended to provide the space to take on difficult issues. Hopefully the Government will use this to advantage to achieve substantial progress on these issues over the next four years.

Election update
by Alan Kirkland
February 2003

Although each of the major parties has already made some major election policy announcements, the bulk of social policy announcements are yet to come.

The Coalition launched its education policy in late 2002. This policy includes a commitment to progressively reduce class sizes in the early years of schooling, with classes in years K to 2 to be limited to an average of 21 students by 2007. This comes close to the recommendations of the Vinson Inquiry and to recommendations made in successive NCOSS Pre-Budget Submissions. The Government has so far only committed to a trial of smaller class sizes.

Other elements of the Coalition's education policy are, however, worrying. The rigid approach to school discipline, underpinned by the introduction of mutual obligation agreements for senior school students, might reasonably be expected to increase the number of students excluded from the mainstream education system.

From the Government, the major announcement of interest to NCOSS concerned additional funding for the Department of Community Services. Over the next five years, this funding will provide an additional 875 frontline caseworkers, additional support for new and existing workers, $150 million for early intervention family services and an additional $460 million for out of home care. This funding could provide a basis for addressing many of the problems identified by the Community Services Commission, the Ombudsman and the recent inquiry by the Social Issues Committee of the Legislative Council. At this stage, however, the form of many of these initiatives - including the additional early intervention family services - is still to be determined. The Department may also face significant challenges in recruiting the large numbers of additional caseworkers foreseen in the funding package. It is important to note that other areas of DoCS' responsibilities, such as children's and youth services, community development and supported accommodation and assistance will not benefit from the package.

On the law and order front, it has been pleasing to note a shift in some of the rhetoric of the major parties. In a speech to the Law Society late last year, the Premier steered away from the 'tough on crime' emphasis that has characterised recent election campaigns in favour of an emphasis on crime prevention. At the launch of the Coalition's education policy, the Leader of the Opposition drew a link between education expenditure and the criminal justice system, stating that the Coalition wanted to close prisons and open schools. Despite these shifts in rhetoric the policy announcements of the major parties have not yet signalled any positive shifts in areas such as senten-cing or prison conditions. If anything, things took a turn for the worse during the recent debate around access to bail.

The bulk of the policy announcements of interest to the social and community services sector are yet to come. In particular, we look to the major parties to address problems in areas such as transport concessions, community care for people discharged from hospital, social housing, disability services and services for homeless people.

Council of Social Service of New South Wales (NCOSS)
66 Albion St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Australia
tel (02) 9211 2599
fax (02) 9281 1968
email info@ncoss.org.au

All information contained on this web site is copyright
Web site maintained by webmater@ncoss.org.au.

[Home]