Last week the 2021-22 State Budget was released, and while we have seen young people described as ‘winners’ out of this, there really isn’t much in there for young people at all.
While this year’s budget has big spending in health, infrastructure and education, which will impact young people, spending on the environment, cost of living relief and economic security for young people is missing. It comes during a global pandemic that we know young people will continue to feel the effects of for up to a decade, so we’re disappointed that there are no measures specifically for young people in this COVID-19 context.
The measures that directly relate to young people are:
$2.6m over four years for pilot Stability Post-Care program to support young people up to the age of 21 years leaving care at risk of homelessness
$1.3m over two years for Child Diversion program (Youth Justice) triage and support service for children at risk of being remanded into custody due to lack of accommodation
A two-year extension of payroll tax exemption for apprentices and trainees to encourage employment and training of young people
$4m over four years to establish the position of Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People
$1.2m over two years to establish a significant incident reporting unit in Child Protection which may be useful for children at risk, but it is unclear why a separate unit is required.
The state government has allocated additional funding to child protection and youth justice but here at YACSA, we don’t see that as a win. This much additional money going to child protection and youth justice suggests to us that we’re not doing enough to prevent children and young people entering those systems. Therefore, we would prefer to see more spent on early intervention and prevention services that support young people’s physical and mental health, housing needs, and cost of living.
We’re pleased to see that the role of the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People will continue. We also kind of welcome payroll tax exemptions for apprentices and trainees, as long as it means more young people can do a traineeship or apprenticeship of their choice and secure a job in that field at the end.
At the end of the day this is just the funding, not that this isn’t important, but in order to make calls of who has ‘won’ and who has ‘lost’ we need to the see the policy it is supporting. We have no real idea of what a lot of this will look like, which is a significant flaw in looking at a budget through the lens of ‘winners and losers’.
