Page 3348 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 21 August 2018
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Many of my portfolio areas within the Community Services Directorate are fundamental to the values I have described: young people, children and families engaged in the child protection system, Canberrans with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans, and Canberrans from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. It is my honour and privilege to work to improve outcomes for all of these Canberrans.
For Canberrans with a disability, the ACT government continues its important role of providing oversight and advice to ensure the NDIS works for Canberrans. In this budget we are providing $1.1 million to support people with disability whose complex needs are unable to be met by the NDIS. The integrated service response will work with the National Disability Insurance Agency to ensure a coordinated approach for people with a disability who engage with multiple service systems.
We are also providing $400,000 over two years for individual advocacy. This will boost the capacity of local advocacy services to support NDIS participants facing challenges with the NDIA. In 2017 the first round of the disability inclusion grants demonstrated that Canberrans want to provide better, more accessible services and environments for people with disability. This budget expands the disability inclusion grants program over the next four years and increases the total grant pool to $100,000 each year.
Work is underway on delivering a disability justice strategy for the ACT. We have provided $580,000 to continue the development of this important piece of work to address the disadvantage that people with disability face when dealing with the justice system. Consultation is now underway. I encourage people to get involved, through the your say website, in the face-to-face consultations or by speaking directly to the Community Services Directorate.
This budget provides more than $2.5 million over four years to strengthen the oversight of providers delivering services to our most vulnerable residents, including people with disability. With the introduction of the NDIS, the number of service providers has risen. We are seeing an increased demand for registration and compliance assessment.
There is no more important role for government than keeping children safe. The budget delivers $345,000 over two years to strengthen the quality of child protection policy and practice by continuing funding for the Child and Youth Protection Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee—part of our comprehensive response to the Glanfield inquiry. The over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care is, as I said at question time today, unacceptable.
The independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led review Our Booris, Our Way is examining the reasons for this over-representation. A wholly Aboriginal steering committee is overseeing the review. This budget provides $1.371 million over 1½ years to fund completion of this important review. The review will release an interim report in coming weeks, with the final report due in late 2019. I am pleased that this funding will enable this important work to continue and to be completed.
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