{"id":446521,"date":"2010-03-18T22:14:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T02:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gordonmoyes.com\/2010\/03\/19\/acoss-survey-on-services-delivery\/"},"modified":"2010-03-18T22:14:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T02:14:25","slug":"acoss-survey-on-services-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/446521","title":{"rendered":"ACOSS Survey on Services Delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes:<\/strong> My question without notice is directed to the Treasurer, on behalf of the Minister for Community Services. Is the Minister aware of a recent survey by the Australian Council of Social Services that found that New South Wales agencies are struggling to meet the rising demand for services and are forced to turn people away? Is the Minister aware that New South Wales fared the worst in the survey, of any State or Territory? In particular, is the Minister aware that more than 110,000 people in New South Wales who were otherwise eligible for services were turned away, and that 75 per cent of the people who were turned away were seeking financial and material support, housing, and food and health services? Will the Government continue to provide additional funding for much-needed program delivery as well as adequate funding to ensure the ongoing sustainability of organisations that deliver such critical services to the State’s most vulnerable people?<\/p>\n

The Hon. Eric Roozendaal:<\/strong> I thank Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes for his question and interest in this matter. It is a wide-ranging question, and I am not aware of the particular survey the honourable member refers to. However, I think it is worth reflecting on what is in the budget in terms of the many areas of service he raises. I have spoken previously in the House about the Health budget. Indeed, I have spoken about a record $15.1 billion being invested in Health in New South Wales, a record $14.7 billion being invested in Education and Training, a record $2.3 billion being invested in Ageing, Disability and Home Care, and the $1.6 billion invested this year in Community Services. And so it goes on. We are absolutely committed to delivering the best set of services to the people of New South Wales. That is precisely the objective of the budget, and it is precisely what we are doing on a daily basis right around New South Wales.<\/p>\n

It is important that when we talk about delivering services to the people of New South Wales we recognise that the challenge of delivering services across the State is taken by all levels of government—local, State and Federal. That is why I am so pleased that there is a new opportunity presented by the Rudd Labor Government nationally to sit down and talk about dealing with a number of issues to improve services for the people of New South Wales.<\/p>\n

One can contrast the relationship between the Rudd Labor Government and the New South Wales Labor Government with the relationship between Tony Abbott and Barry O’Farrell. As we know, Tony Abbott has been very critical of the Barry O’Farrell’s teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy target strategies. I have probably embellished that slightly on what Tony Abbott said. Nevertheless, he has exposed the laziness of the New South Wales Opposition in not putting forward any policies whatsoever. Tony Abbott has exposed that he does not want to be associated with the New South Wales Opposition. He has made it very clear that he wants to be at arm’s length from the New South Wales Opposition.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising that Tony Abbott wants to distance himself from the New South Wales Opposition, when one looks at some of the candidates the Liberals have coughed up in their recent round of preselections.<\/p>\n

The Hon. Don Harwin:<\/strong> Point of order: The response of the Treasurer has nothing to do with the question he was asked.<\/p>\n

The President:<\/strong> Order! I assume the Hon. Don Harwin is taking his point of order on relevance. The Treasurer will continue to be generally relevant.<\/p>\n

The Hon. Eric Roozendaal:<\/strong> I remind the House that there were a number of new initiatives contained in this year’s budget to help communities and to deliver better services. The Local Infrastructure Fund is a $200 million fund to assist councils with loans to bring forward infrastructure and improve delivery. There is also the very popular Community Building Partnerships fund. I cannot recall the number of times I have seen Opposition members praising that program in the media and happily posing for the happy snaps, trying to steal credit for yet another New South Wales Government initiative. However, I welcome Opposition members supporting New South Wales Government initiatives. That was one of the many initiatives the Government included in the budget to support the people of New South Wales and to improve services.<\/p>\n

Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes:<\/strong> Point of order: My point of order relates to relevance. I ask the Minister whether he would pass my question onto the Minister for Community Services for answer.<\/p>\n

The President:<\/strong> Order! The time for the Treasurer to answer has expired. However, I believe that at the commencement of his answer the Treasurer said that he would refer the specifics of the question to the Minister responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: My question without notice is directed to the Treasurer, on behalf of the Minister for Community Services. Is the Minister aware of a recent survey by the Australian Council of Social Services that found that New South Wales agencies are struggling to meet the rising demand for services and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}