Media Release: NT Budget misses opportunity to help vulnerable amid high inflation
This year’s Northern Territory Budget delivers some positives for the community and social sector, but overall, our sector sees it as underwhelming and a missed opportunity to help the Territory’s most vulnerable.
A Budget is a values statement that should prioritise people and put community at the centre.
We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis, with the highest inflation in decades causing significant financial stress to people on low incomes and those who are unwaged.
However, we have not been able to identify any meaningful increase in funding to social services such as financial counselling; housing support; and women’s safe houses nor a greater investment in preventative and strengths-based programs for our young people.
“There should be more investment in combatting family violence, improving school engagement and more,” said NTCOSS CEO Stephanie Kelly.
“We welcome the recognition of the impact on emergency frontline services through funding to support their wellbeing; we would like that support expanded to frontline social services workers.
“The additional support for householder energy bills is welcome.
“But it is a missed opportunity to target support to households most in need by expanding the Northern Territory Concession Scheme to include people on JobSeeker and other people with a Commonwealth Health Care Card holders.
The NT Government’s Budget forward estimates forecasts a return to surplus and the Federal Budget has returned to the black. This would have been a perfect opportunity to increase investment in social services and put people at the centre of the Budget.
We are cautiously optimistic about the $38.8 million to implement the Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
Women’s Safety Services of Central Australia CEO Larissa Ellis said: “We are cautiously optimistic about the $20 million in funding for phase 1 of the NT Domestic Family Sexual Violence Reduction Framework, Action Plan 2.
“But it doesn’t look like there is any funding for women’s safety houses including in remote communities, an area that is greatly under-resourced.”
“A strong Budget and economy are foundational and incredibly important,” said Anglicare CEO Craig Kelly.
“Given improvements to the financial position and budget structural issues, it is time to ramp up investment in social services on the back of previous investment, not maintain current levels.”
The sector welcomes funding for remote homelands and outstations housing, but it is unclear whether the Budget includes funding to tackle wait times for social and transitional housing.
NT Mental Health Coalition CEO Geoff Radford said there had been no increase in current funding for community mental health services, which was a “drop in the ocean” for what was needed.
“Cost of living pressure places stress on families, escalating mental health concerns. Financial security is crucial for mental health. Territorians need support to ensure their basic needs such as housing and food security are covered. They need access to mental health support when and where they need it, not weeks later or having to travel long distances and pay high costs.”
NTCOSS’s Value of the Sector Report found that the NT not-for-profit sector is larger and employs more people than the mining sector in the NT – with more than 20,000 Territory workers and volunteers – and contributes more to state domestic product. Our sector contributes in the vicinity of $3.26 billion to the NT economy.
We need more funding restored to our sector to address wage growth of more than 5% following last year’s Fair Work Australia National Wage Case decision, at a time of significantly growing demand on our services.
Media Contact: 0429 515 013 or media@ntcoss.org.au