In the lead up to the 2014 State Election VCOSS sat down with James Merlino, Jenny Mikakos and Richard Wynne from the ALP to explore their vision for a Victoria without poverty.
You can watch this wide ranging interview or review the transcript below for insights into the incoming Victorian Labor Government’s social policy agenda.
(00:00) What makes the ALP different to the other parties who are contesting this election?
Emma King: If I can thank you very much, we’ve got James Merlino, Richard Wynne and Jenny Mikakos with us today. We’re really focussing on what the issues are in particular for the community sector. So I would like to thank you all for coming in, in what I know is a particularly busy time, in the very last week of the election campaign and it’s great to have the opportunity to ask you some of the key questions that our members are really interested in today. So in terms of starting – I’ll leave this to any of you to answer – quick question: What are the policies, or what are the key things that make the ALP different to the other parties who are contesting this election?
James Merlino: Well I guess from my perspective, education and health, you know, you think about, what’s a State Government there for? It’s there to provide services. An ambulance that arrives on time when you call it. That your local school is a good school, and delivers for your children. You know, the basic services – that’s what a State Government’s about, and my view is that we’ve got a current Government that hasn’t focussed on what are the basic needs for Victorian families, and that’s what we’ll be providing.
(1:08) Relationship with the Federal Government
Emma King: Thank you. Any other comments before moving on? In terms of relationships with the Federal Government, we’ve seen this significant raft of reviews, structural reforms at a Federal level, and they’re going to have significant impact, really for all Victorians. What will a future Labor Government do to make sure, keeping that in mind, to get the very best outcomes for all Victorians, and particularly for vulnerable Victorians?
Richard Wynne: Well, in my area, it’s hard to see that the Federal Government have any interest, and indeed any policy positions around housing, and cities, and how they operate, and I think that’s very troubling. So, we would not have any confidence, nor, I think, can the community sector have any confidence, at least at this stage, that the Federal Government will have any commitment to a joint Commonwealth-State arrangement around housing, and I think that’s quite fundamental. And certainly, if we do get the honour of being elected, I’ll be on my bike to go and see Minister Andrews, to say, well, what is your position, and what do you intend to do in terms of so many of these Commonwealth-State agreements that directly impact on Jenny’s area and my area in particular, which are crucial to the sustainability of so many of these key service areas, and I’m sure you agree Jenny.
Jenny Mikakos: Yes, and if I can just add, also in the early childhood area, the very concerning fact that it now looks like the Abbott Government wants to actually get out of providing any contribution to early childhood funding. So, the National Partnership Agreement’s come to an end, they’ve only provided very short term ongoing funding for 15 hours of kindergarten, and I will be very outspoken, we will be very strident in our criticism of that short term funding and saying to the Federal Government, that they must continue to be a direct funding provider of 15 hours for kindergarten in our state and around the country.
James Merlino: If I could add, too, Emma, the point is that we will work with the Abbott Government but we won’t work for them. But I think all of us have got a fear, and I think in the broader community as well, you’ve seen the first Abbott Budget talking about billions of dollars cut out of health, out of education, out of support for at-risk young people – they’re cutting Youth Connections. The fear is that they’re deliberately making all these cuts, putting the pressure on the states and territories to pick up on those areas that they’re withdrawing from, and then coming, cap in hand, back to the Federal Government, and saying please, can you increase the GST? So we’re not going to do that – we’ve ruled that out, but it’s going to be quite a difficult period in the years ahead, but we’re not going to sit back and not have that fight, not have that argument. In my area, around the Gonski funding, you know the link between educational outcomes and disadvantage. The fact that the Abbott Government are walking away from years five and six of the Gonski agreement, that will be a significant issue over the next few years.
(4:28) Assisting Victorians meet cost of living pressures
Emma King: Yes, absolutely, thank you. In terms of building on some of those points, maybe not in terms of the Federal Government but looking at the significant increase in the cost of living for Victorians as well. So we’ve seen bills skyrocketing for ordinary Victorians around utilities, food etcetera, we’ve seen an increase in the number of Victorians who are really struggling to meet the cost of living. What will a future Labor Government do to turn that around, and to really help those families who are facing disadvantage, struggling to afford food, struggling to pay their bills?
Richard Wynne: Well, one of the classics is of course, I think a fantastic policy which James has put forward, which goes to the very heart of providing support to the most vulnerable people in our community, and that’s in effect the support, what we would have called in the past, Education Maintenance Allowance. This is fundamental – it’s about kids who have not necessarily had the, and their families, who have not had the capacity to get the most basic things for their schooling. Things like uniforms, things like books, excursions, things like that I think really go to the heart of what a Labor Government’s about. I mean, we are about fairness, and the concept of social justice is lost in the vocabulary of a Liberal Government – they never speak those words, but these are words that are fundamental to us as a Labor party, that these kids have to be given that opportunity. And all the research speaks to that question, that if you provide this basic level of support to these kids, you provide quality education, they can thrive, and they do, there’s no question about that.
Emma King: Absolutely.
James Merlino: And also in terms of cost of living, you’ve got to be careful about what you can do that can make a difference, and what’s just talk, and one of the things we know can make a difference is the capping of council rates, so that’s our policy. You look to – Dick would know this more than me – but you look to New South Wales, and they’ve had the policy of capping council rates for a significant period of time, and that does make a difference, so that’s a concrete, concrete initiative that will lower the cost of living for Victorian families.
(6:48) Addressing Victoria’s unemployment crisis
Emma King: Thank you. Thanks for that. In terms of looking at jobs, in terms of the lead-up to the election campaign, we’ve seen each party put out jobs policies, and there’s been a significant amount of publicity I guess in terms of looking at the growing unemployment in Victoria overall, and particularly the growing unemployment within specific segments of our community, so for example, looking youth unemployment that’s up around 20% in some areas, looking at the number of Aboriginal Victorians who are unemployed, that’s around 20% as well, those who have disabilities, again, really disproportionately out of work in comparison to others. What will the future Labor Government do to really look at putting jobs on the agenda, and breaking the cycle for disadvantaged Victorians, so that all Victorians who are able to, are able to access a job.
James Merlino: Well there’s a few things in that space, and you’re right, you know, the unemployment rate’s at its worst for 13 years, in my own community in the outer east, there are 10,000 more young people unemployed today than in December 2010. So it’s madness in that economic situation to take the knife to our TAFE system, you know, we’ve got to have a robust, sustainable TAFE system delivering the skills for people who are either needing reskilling, as they transition to another industry, another job, or for young people.
So education’s a key part of that. A $320 million rescue package for TAFE in our fist year, and then even more importantly, Bruce McKenzie, the former CEO of Homesglen TAFE will be conducting a review of the funding of our TAFE system. So we’re going to get TAFE off its knees, and delivering the skills for our community. And you know, this line coming from the Government that these were Mickey Mouse courses and Mickey Mouse campuses, well Swinburne, Lilydale, Greensdale TAFE, they’ve been forced to lock their doors, and a generation of young people are missing out. So that’s in a skills space.
Plus we’re going to be implementing ten new tech schools right across the state – happy to talk about that later. In the direct employment space, there are things you can do to provide support for companies, so there will be payroll tax relief for companies that take on board a young person, a recently retrenched person, someone who’s been unemployed for a significant period of time, so there’ll be immediate payroll tax relief for those companies to support those companies who take on a young person.
And secondly, there’s a lot of talk about, you know, our economy’s in transition, we’ve seen Holden, and Ford, and Qantas, and Alcoa, but what are we transitioning to? We released our jobs package that actually targets the areas where we are strong, we’ve got competitive advantages, comparative advantages in certain industries, and we need to support the growth in those industries, whether it’s pharmaceuticals, international education, freight and logistics, construction technology. There are things we do well, and we need to invest in those industries.
(10:09) Improving training opportunities for vulnerable people
Emma King: Okay, thank you. In terms of looking at training – you mentioned the vocational education and training sector – so Victoria’s really undergone two quite significant changes, firstly under the previous Labor Government and then we’ve seen a significant shift under the current Coalition Government as well. How will you make sure that vulnerable people are supported to enter into courses, that are relevant to picking up jobs at the end – so not just entering courses but looking at the completion of those courses so they genuinely lead to strong job opportunities?
James Merlino: One of the areas, I think, or one of the next big areas of reform, I think one’s early childhood, which is Jenny’s area, the other is the connection between senior secondary, industry, and TAFE and tertiary providers, and looking at what are the economic strengths in a region and delivering those pathways for those young people in that particular area. So that’s what the tech schools are all about. And it will be different, each one will be different, looking at what are the industry strengths in that particular region and providing those pathways, broadening the opportunities for young people to get those skills, in those industries, so they can get a job where they live.
(11:26) Improve education participation
Emma King: Okay, thank you. Any other comments in terms of vocational education? And in terms of moving on to education, which is obviously specifically your area James. The Labor party’s made a number of announcements specifically around education, particularly looking at helping the children of vulnerable families, or those that are on healthcare cards genuinely participate in education, so – as you mentioned earlier, looking at the investment that would take place for helping kids go to camps, excursions, sports, towards school uniforms, etcetera. In terms of looking at the promises you’ve made in that area, will that fully address the gap that’s been left by the Education Maintenance Allowance?
James Merlino: Look, it will, but there’s more we need to do. In terms of what this Government’s cut, there’s the Education Maintenance Allowance, that’s in two parts: There was a school component, and a payment to the parents. They cut the school payment a couple of years ago. This is the last year of the parents’ component. So if Denis Napthine is re-elected, there will be no EMA. They’ve talked about providing some equity funding for some schools, but I can tell you there are hundreds and hundreds of schools that will get nothing.
Secondary schools have got in touch with me, their current EMA – this is the payment to parents – is in the order of $50,000 or $60,000 dollars, as Richard says, this is for the very basics – it’s books, excursions, uniforms – the very basics. We didn’t want to go to the election just talking about replacing what they’ve cut; we wanted to be innovative about it, so it’s in a variety of ways, and it’s a full replacement for EMA, but we’ve got to do more. So there’s the $150 million camps and excursions fund. So this is a direct payment to the school, for the child, so every school is accountable to deliver the camps, excursions and sports trips fund, for that child.
In addition to that, a significant increase in funding for states schools relief – this is for uniforms, books, stationery, software. We’re going to significantly expand breakfast clubs, so we’ll expand it to 500 schools, which will mean that 25,000 kids will have something in their stomach before they start the day. Glasses at school, again in partnership with state schools relief. So there’s all those, there’s that package of support for vulnerable families, in the order of 220,000 children, but the big step, the next big step is the Gonski funding. Now, the Gonski funding has gone missing.
So, we’ve made it quite clear that if we’re elected at the end of this week, we’ll have a forensic examination in terms of the Gonski national agreement – what was agreed, how much was being provided to Victoria, and where has that money gone, because it hasn’t gone to our state schools, or to our non-government schools. Schools have not seen any of the Gonski funding. And that is a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve support for students from a disadvantaged background, whether it’s socioeconomic, or indigineity, or rurality, or disability – significant extra funding support for those kids. This Government hasn’t passed that money on.
(14:51) Addressing youth disengagement
Emma King: Okay, thank you for clarifying. Further in regard to that area as well, looking at youth disengagement from school. We know that there’s about 10,000 people who are school leavers – who are not engaged in education at the moment, and at the same time we know that Youth Connections – the program that you mentioned earlier, which is a federally funded program – it’s ending, and we know that the Youth Connections program has been incredibly successful in linking young people back up to education and to work. And we interviewed a young man on the 7:30 Report on Friday night, who talked about how the Youth Connections program, it turned his life around. So he pulled out of school really in year seven – so he disengaged very early, and for him the Youth Connections program is something that’s given him promise. He’s now at TAFE, he’s doing panel beating and carpentry, he’s been clean of ice for eight months – it’s a real success story. So we’re really interested in: What will the ALP do to help those kids who are disengaged back into education, and will you be able to fill the gap, in terms of what has been left from Youth Connections?
James Merlino: Jenny might want to add – this is one of the tragedies of the Abbott budget, and one of the challenges for any State or Territory Government, because they are vacating the field, for the fist time in decades, there’s no direct youth program coming out of the Federal Government, and State Governments, if we have the honour of governing this state come Saturday, the challenge for us will be, how much can we pick up, that Tony Abbott has cut, and it’s finite. I agree with you, it’s a terrific program, but it’s a question of what is the state’s capacity to pick up everything that Tony Abbott is cutting, and these are difficult questions.
Jenny Mikakos: And in addition to Tony Abbott’s cuts, we’ve also had our State Government’s cut a whole lot of youth programs themselves. They’ve cut programs for youth mentoring – we’ve made some announcements about youth mentoring in the last few days. They’ve cut youth employment programs, apart from the cuts to TAFE and education which directly impact on young people. So we’re about supporting young people – providing them with opportunities in life, seeing them in a positive light instead of in the negative way that we’re concerned that the Government seeks to portray young people. And if you’re serious about tackling issues around employment, youth unemployment, then you need to provide a whole range of supports around them. And so our plan around focussing on education and TAFE in particular, and mentoring and those kinds of supports is the way to give those young people opportunities.
(17:34) Homelessness and housing affordability
Emma King: Thank you. Richard, if I can direct the next question to you, which is in regard to housing, which is something that’s been dear to your heart for a very long time.
Richard Wynne: Indeed.
Emma King: In Victoria we’re continuing to see an increase in the number of people who are experiencing significant rental stress. We haven’t heard much from the ALP in terms of that portfolio, and I don’t know whether, when you’re announcing your actual policies and when you’ll be able to say more, but what are you about to tell us today in terms of the ALP’s housing policy overall, and what the ALP is planning to do to really make sure that every Victorian has a secure and affordable home?
Richard Wynne: Sure. The conversation of course states with the Commonwealth, as we talked about earlier. So, we have a framework that is so uncertain, it’s a bit difficult for State Governments to really position themselves when you don’t have any clarity around a Commonwealth-State partnership arrangement. The best example of that is the homelessness partnership, which you know very well, is one the Commonwealth have indicated will run out on June 30 of next year. We don’t know whether that program will continue. There is a state commitment to it, as you know, through the forward estimates for the four years, and that’s a good thing. And obviously, we would absolutely honour that. But you have to get that framework right fist.
Secondly, we have made some announcements already, and one of them slipped a little bit under the radar, and that is inclusionary zoning. Now, VCOSS and many, many activists have called for inclusionary zoning to be part of our broader policy mix and we announced that. So what we have said is where there is State Government land that is suitable for development, we would look towards – on a site by site basis – look towards inclusionary zoning being mandated in those developments, somewhere between 10 and 15 percent needs to be for affordable housing more generally, and some of that housing will, no doubt, be managed by our social housing providers, and that’s terrific, and I’m sure they’ll be delighted with that.
We’ve also indicated that we will have – particularly in Aboriginal housing – that we will have a progressive transfer of stock, which is currently leased on long-term lease to Aboriginal Housing Victoria, to allow them to, over the next four years, if we have that opportunity, to allow them to build their asset base, and that’s crucial for organisations that actually own the stock, so then they can borrow off the back and build more stock as well. And we’ve also indicated that we will look – on a case by case basis – with our social housing providers, to look at the whole question of stock transfer.
So this Government comes out and says, we’re going to transfer 12,000 units to the social housing sector, or, what are they? Where are they? What liability attends to those units? So it’s easy to glibly make these kinds of statements, but we believe it is important that you do this in a systematic way, and you do it in a partnership way with social housing providers, and obviously I’ve been engaged in quite detailed conversations about how that might look going forward.
On the capital side, it is quite challenging because we actually don’t know what we’re going to inherit. But we do know, is this will be the first time in certainly my history in housing which goes back as you know quite a long way, that a Government will finish its term with less public housing than when it started. So, I’ve got a job to do, if I get that opportunity, to actually pause and try and assess how we take this forward, so in effect I would start about 2,500 units behind, before we even get going, so it’s a big challenge, but it’s one that I’m certainly up for.
(22:15) Improving our child protection system
Emma King: Jenny in terms of child protection, I’m interested in your thoughts on two .. There’s two parts to my question, One is looking at in the child protection space looking at what initiatives you would put in place to really look at helping children avoid going into care in the first instance and then secondly for those children who unfortunately do have to go into resident care foster care kinship care etc., what measures you’d put in place to ensure that those children are safe and can go on to lead happy and healthy lives.
Jenny Mikakos: Sure, well similar to Richard there are enormous challenge in the child protection system its facing enormous strain at the moment. We’re seeing about an increase in demand of about 14-15 % a year. So we need to look at the drivers behind that. And family violence is a very key issue there’s a very strong correlation a strong connection ben family violence and child protection. In fact the evidence is about two thirds of child protection cases have family v involved as a factor. In fact some people have put to me that it’s much, much higher. That it’s much much higher. So we’re are going to look at the drivers we’re going to focus on those drivers, family violence being one and we’ll talk about that I’m sure at some length today. But family violence, drugs and alcohol, the ice epidemic in particular, mental health, all of these issues are issues that are playing a big factor in driving the increase in demand. So we’ve got to focus on early intervention programs, providing additional support to vulnerable and at risk families. Trying to keep people out of the child protection system if we can, that’s got to be the starting point.
But there are issues in terms of once they come into the system and the types of supports that people receive in the system as well. One thing that I’ve expressed concern about is that recently the government changed the legislation, the child protection legislation to actually reduce the oversight role that the Children’s Court plays. Now that’s sort of at the end of the process in some respects. But the Children’s Court can effectively order the department, make sure the department’s provided the necessary supports to vulnerable families and the way the government’s changed the leg has act watered down the court’s ability to do that so we’ve said that we will reinstate the powers of the Children’s Court to oversight the department to make sure that if people now have this new requirements that the clock is ticking in terms of permanent care orders under the government’s new leg that the department is required to provide the necessary supports whether that’s drug and alcohol counselling or other kinds of supports, to both parents sand to children before orders can be made and we think that’s going to be the very important check and balance on the system.
But there are other issues in terms of ooh care of course and I’ll just touch upon those. I’ve expressed a lot of concern about the safety of children in residential care. We need to ensure that children are safe wherever they are whether they’re in the home or if they’re in out-of-home care whether it’s residential care or foster care or other types of alt care arrangements. So we’ve got to look at why very young children are being placed in residential care. The government has come up with a plan that I don’t think stacks up. Most people are saying to me it doesn’t stack up. They’re trying to reduce residential care beds at the time where demand’s actually going up. The Auditor-General has said there’s going to be a 30 per cent increase in demand. And so if they’re not going into residential care, where are they going to go? But where they are going into residential care, we’ve actually got children as young as seven being placed in residential care. Now I don’t think that’s appropriate. We should try and provide a family-like environment for children as much as possible. So that’s got to be kinship care that’s got to be foster care. And in relation to those we are seeing more foster carers leaving the system than are entering the system. That’s of concern to me, so we need to strengthen our foster care, we need to strengthen our kinship care. They should be the first port of call, residential care should be the last resort.
(26:46) Supporting Victorian foster carers
Emma King: Thank you. I was going to ask a question, so just in terms of if there’s anything that you’d like to further elaborate on in terms of the number of foster carers, an increase in the need for foster carers and a reduction in the number of foster carers is the picture that we’re facing. How would you look to address. What specific initiatives might you put in place?
Jenny Mikakos: Well you know, we’ve still got a few days to go, we’ll be having more to say around the detail of that. But you know, if we just look at the fact that the government, one of its first things that it did in relation to foster care was it got rid of the centralised recruitment strategy that we as the previous government had put in place, so what’s happening now is you’ve got every foster care agency around the state running its own ad hoc recruitment strategies I think those issues have got to be looked at, there’s got to be a more coordinated approach to how we recruit and retain foster carers. We’ve got a situation where, depending on which regional office of the department a foster carer approaches for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses they get different responses. Depending on which time of the financial year, if money’s run out they get a different response as to whether they can claim things. Now that’s just an unacceptable situation. Foster carers need to understand what the rules are what they’re entitled to get reimbursed for and to have a clear policy setting that makes it fair for foster carers and doesn’t actively discourage them from participating.
We absolutely value the important role that foster carers play, they are selfless people, I know they don’t do it for the money, they are incredibly generous in terms of supporting the most vulnerable children in our society and we need to support foster carers better.
Emma King: We look forward to seeing more over the next few days from the sound of it as well Jenny.
(28:35) Responding to family violence
Emma King: In terms of family violence, which we’ve touched on in a number of different portfolios today as well, there’s been a significant focus in terms of looking at family violence over this election which has been a really positive thing to see. So unfortunately while the numbers are increasing significantly, we have seen each party really, I think, step up and look at a suite of initiatives around family violence. One of the questions I think for our members, is looking at it within that context, what support would a Labor government provide to specialist family violence agencies, who really work at the frontline, to enable them to continue to do the work they do and in response to what’s one of the biggest issues in our society?
Jenny Mikakos: Well the starting point of course is that we’ve announced, and I’m very proud of this, the first ever Royal Commission into family violence. That will be the first in the country and that’s got to be the driver behind how we app this issue in the future and that’s going to obviously flow on to impact in my area and in child protection, and how we provide better support in the early intervention space and try and keep at risk families from actually entering the child protection system, as I alluded to earlier.
But there are a range of announcements that we’ve already made. Support to better strengthen the existing services that are there in relation to family violence, you know, that’s a range of initiatives. But the key focus has actually got to be on trying to tackle the causes behind family violence, changing the culture, it’s White Ribbon Day today, just about reinforcing the message that it’s a crime, it’s not acceptable, that’s got to be from us as politicians. The Chief Commissioner of Police and others are constantly reinforcing that it’s got to be tackled in a more systemic way than we have been doing in the past.
(30:37) Supporting specialist family violence services
Emma King: So in terms of the specialist family violence services that are there, in terms of perhaps within your package, any initiatives that you’ve got that really look at supporting those specialist family violence agencies that work at the frontline?
Richard Wynne: Absolutely and we’ve got a range of … this is just the first stage of this. I mean it’s a fantastic commitment, let me run through a few of them, so $1.4 million for Domestic Violence Victoria, I mean, fantastic, to employ additional staff. As you know they have a very, very small staff who do a sensational job. $12 million to expand the Family Violence court division in the Magistrate’s Court, really, really crucial thing.
Jenny Mikakos: Something that we started, we initiated as the previous government had those dedicated family violence workers in the Magistrate’s Court.
Richard Wynne: Absolutely, $1.2 million family violence lawyers at community legal centres. I mean this is at the heart of the front line, so DV Vic, family violence courts, support to the legal services, $2.5m for children’s counsellors, other specialist care for young people who witness who witness family violence in the home.
I mean these are really crucial first stage Emma, the first campaign frankly by a Labor Government to this most fundamental scourge to our society. And as Jenny said and James, we were at our state conference when Daniel I think made and extraordinary speech, an electric speech at our conference which, grown men ant the back of the room were crying at his speech. And it spoke to who he is, it spoke to how deeply committed not only we are but our leader is to addressing this question of domestic violence this terrible scourge which is so much a part of our community. And for the potential future premier of the state to say this is one of his first priorities speaks to his commitment and our commitment to it. And he has indicated in that speech and subsequently we will support in full, all of the recommendations from that Royal Commission.
James Merlino: And that’s really an important point, you know, this is a two-step process. There are the immediate things we can do to support frontline services, as you say Emma. The real transformative change will take place through the Royal Commission, you know, the highest level of inquiry, nothing is off limits. And as Richard says, we will implement them in full and we know that’s a big call. You’ve got to do both. If you just do the first, increase resources, that’s good, but it’s not going to have the transformative change to really tackle family violence.
Richard Wynne: And when you’ve got the chief commissioner of police, I mean what a partnership, when you’ve got the chief commissioner of police and the highest political office in the state, together saying “we are going to make this a priority”, you’re going to get change.
Emma King: That’s great, thank you for your very comprehensive answer.
(34:00) Competitive tendering of community services
Emma King: Fantastic, thank you, and finally in terms of looking at recommissioning, we’ve had these discussions with each of you.
The community sector has been deeply concerned about the recommissioning process that has taken place in the mental health and drug and alcohol space. We’ve talked about the issues at length and our members are very aware of what the consequences of that might be. Can you confirm that if the ALP wins, you won’t retender whole funding programs using competitive tendering?
Richard Wynne: We are going to completely review it. We made that clear in our mental health policy we put out last week. There was a very clear articulation of that. Because this speaks to the crucial role, this is an important message we want to send to your sector. We value small organisations. We absolutely value them.
As an initial down payment, we announced we would re-fund immediately three of those organisations, St Mary’s House of Welcome, Jesuit Social Services and Prahran Mission, with their mental health funding. Because – let me just talk about the one I know so well – St Mary’s House of Welcome, beautiful people who are working with the most vulnerable homeless people with any range of problems that you can possibly think of. They provide the most basic services, from showers, to food, to clothing.
To have four and a half staff taken away from this organisation is inexcusable. We wanted to demonstrate our commitment, not only to St Mary’s House of Welcome, but to small organisations, that we value them and we think the supports they provide are absolutely crucial. It is the nature of the relationship you have, often built up over years with homeless people who really often live on the margins of our community. To suggest to these people to access mental health services somewhere else is nonsense.
Frankly, Mary Wooldridge doesn’t get it. This notion of service efficiency, to say to a homeless person in my part of the world who is potentially living on the street or in vulnerable accommodation, go and access your mental health services from Fitzroy in Hawthorn, with someone who they don’t known, have no relationship with, you might as well say fly to the moon. It’s not going to happen.
Emma King: Just to clarify, in terms of looking at the ALP commitment to the community sector and the relationship with the sector, can you confirm if Labor wins the election you will not retender whole programs through competitive tendering?
Richard Wynne: Yes, we have made it very clear in our mental health statement that we put out in our last few days. We have a specific section in that statement which goes to the question of tendering out of mental health services which we think have been a complete disaster. We value small organisations and if there is one message that comes out of today, we want the sector to understand that small organisations are absolutely crucial and we value them. As a first stage of that, obviously to ensure that small organisations like St Mary’s House of Welcome in my area, Prahran Mission, the Jesuits, to name three in the first instance, we have indicated we will refund their services.
For instance St Mary’s House of Welcome lost four and a half staff, and to suggest to homeless people who may have had a relationship with St Mary’s House of Welcome for years and years that they would access their mental health services somewhere else you might as well say fly to the moon. It’s not going to happen and people are falling through the cracks. So the message we send to the community sector more generally is that we will not be undertaking that form of service delivery in the future and we will be looking at it in a much more systemic way to ensure that the services so crucial to the life of the most vulnerable in our community actually fit in the community sector and in community organisations where they have done magnificent work across the board.
Emma King: What I’m, hearing from you, just to clarify, is that you won’t engage in competitive tendering of the type we have seen in the mental health space?
Richard Wynne: Correct.
(39:25) Community sector engagement
Emma King: In terms of looking at the broader engagement with the community sector, one of the things established over the last term of government has been the community sector reform council, which has enabled some high level discussion with the community sector, departmental secretaries, deputy secretaries, in a way we have not seen before. Does the ALP have a view about setting up a process that would be similar, or a structure of some sort that will enable the community sector to engage and have a permissible form discussion with departmental secretaries and deputy secretaries on that type of scale?
Jenny Mikakos: We are going to engage with the sector. We want to make that absolutely clear. What I have heard in my portfolio is a sense of frustration from the sector, that they don’t feel they have been engaged on a number of issues. Some people have been around the table but a lot of people have felt they haven’t been able to engage. We will look at the structure that we feel is the most appropriate vehicle but there clearly will be a strong dialogue. There will be a partnership approach in terms of feeding through ideas for policy development and reform. We will certainly be in close dialogue with the sector on a whole range of issues.
Emma King: In terms of looking at relationship with departmental secretaries, which I think is something that has been really positive. While government might change, departmental secretaries fundamentally tend to remain around the table. Is that something that you have thought about in terms of future structure, or will you look at that once you..
Jenny Mikakos: We have done that ourselves in government. Richard and myself in Government, we shared the Aboriginal Justice Forum. We had departmental secretaries, the Chief Commissioner of Police, come to those forums and engage directly with community. It’s not a new thing, its something we have done in government, and we want to ensure that people feel they are able to access us as elected representatives, but also senior bureaucrats as well.
Richard Wynne: Yeah I mean I think Jenny’s right. If there is one thing you can say about Labor government, it’s that we are accessible. And I don’t think, and there has been criticism of this government from the sector, that Ministers have not been as accessible as you would hope for. Sometimes you are on the cup of tea list, and sometimes you are not. It’s ridiculous. The community sector is a strong and vibrant area and there are a range of voices. We want to make sure that all of those voices have the opportunity to be heard and not just a few. Obviously peak bodies like yourselves are crucial to that, but really we have always wanted to, our whole approach has always been to work collaboratively across the community sector, not be picking and choosing what voices we want to hear.
Emma King: Thanks for clarifying.
(42:39) Supporting people with disabilities who will not be covered by the NDIS
Emma King: In terms of NDIS – I think NDIS has been an incredibly welcome initiative – when the NDIS is fully rolled out it will only pick up about 2 per cent of the Victorian population, so given that we’ve got about 20 per cent of the Victorian population with disabilities, how will a future Labor Government address that gap between NDIS and really caring for those in our community who’ve got disabilities and who’ve got mental health issues as well?
Jenny Mikakos: Well the NDIS is a ground-breaking reform and I’m proud that it’s a ground-breaking Labor reform, so it’s always had strong support from Victorian Labor, and we look forward to the roll out beginning in 2016 to the full implementation in 2019. And so we have to work through a whole range of issues, in terms of how we ensure that those people who are in tier two continue to receive ongoing support from Government. The spirit or the intention behind NDIS is to ensure that people receive services, receive better access to services, and we can address the waiting lists that have blown out every single year during the term of this Government. Every single year the waiting list has blown out for the Disability Support Services Register; how people can get access to services. So we’re going to have to look at how we can continue to provide support for those people going forward, and work with the NDI Agency as well as the Federal Government to ensure that the NDIS actually meets the spirit and the intention that was behind it originally.
James Merlino: And if I can add Emma, just in terms of education, one is pursuing the Gonski funding; one of the key components of that was an additional loading for students with disabilities, so pursing that funding and then delivering it to Victorian families. Then the second issue is around a really innovative package of support for students with additional needs, so under a Labor Government, you will not be able to be registered as a teacher if a tertiary institution has not provided compulsory special needs training. So in every classroom there’ll be one, three, five, seven kids on the spectrum, or with dyslexia or dyspraxia; kids with additional needs, yet our training in this area is woeful, so we’ll make that compulsory. So we’ve announced a capital fund for schools to provide additional supports for students with special needs, whether it’s a sensory garden, or whether it’s a permanent space for the students and for the teacher aids, so we’ve made a whole raft of announcements in terms of special needs education.
(45:25) Power for Victorian Auditor General to examine Public Private Partnerships
Emma King: Thank you. Thanks for clarifying that. Moving on to the powers of the Auditor General, and people are often a bit surprised when we talk about this as VCOSS, but VCOSS is particularly concerned I guess that a) all public money is spent to genuine public good, and also at the end of the day, when we look at genuine scrutiny of projects, we want to know that money is spent well, and fundamentally looking at how we want to see a significant contribution to our community sector.
There’s been a lot of commentary lately about the powers of the Auditor General, and the current lack of powers to follow the dollar in public-private partnerships. We’ve seen a lot of increase in the number of public-private partnerships over time. Does the ALP commit to increasing the powers of the Auditor General to follow the dollar, should you be in power.
James Merlino: The short answer is yes, and we’ll be working with the Auditor General to provide him with the ability to allow the system to be more transparent, and more accountable, so it’s in relation to follow the dollar with Triple Ps, not to say that Triple Ps are a bad thing; we had a package of schools delivered under the Triple P program and I think that’s been a success, and we may well do that again if we’re in Government. But we’ve made a raft of commitments around increasing transparency and accountability, whether that’s through FOI, whether that’s through working with the Auditor General so he can do his job better, or whether that’s following the dollar, or whether that’s in relation to how the Education Department has treated their own stock, and writing it down.
It’s extraordinary, extraordinary that the Auditor General has given a qualified, qualified report to Victoria’s books, you know, that is a complete slap in the face to the Treasurer Michael O’Brien. So we will be working with the Auditor General to provide him with those additional powers.
(47:24) Funding for Equal Remuneration Order and indexation of community services
Emma King: Finally, in terms of you were kind enough to talk at the VCOSS AGM James, and one of the questions we asked there was about the Equal Remuneration Order for the community sector. Just to clarify, there is a commitment from the ALP, should you be in power as of Saturday, you commit to fully funding the community sector for the ERO?
James Merlino: Yes, as I said, at the forum, that will be a responsibility for an incoming government.
Emma King: In addition to that, looking at the indexation for the community sector which is a significant thing in terms of meeting the genuine costs of running a business and meeting the needs of the community sector. Do you commit to funding a level of indexation that will meet the genuine needs of running community organisations?
James Merlino: Yeah, I think in answering these organisations, it is difficult to give you an exact figure, or exact percentage of what we will do. But we have a track record of providing that indexation support and, Jenny and Richard might want to add to my comments, but again that will be our responsibility.
Jenny Mikakos: We value the community sector, we want to achieve fair and reasonable outcomes for the community sector, to enable them to keep doing the work, the important work they do, to support vulnerable people in the community. Of course it will be a question of working through what is possible, but we’ll be having a genuine dialogue with the community sector around these issues.
Emma King: Thank you for making the time to come in today. I think it has been fantastic to talk about a wide variety of issues that matter to the Victorian community. It is very generous of you to give your time and thank you very much.