Ms ROSOL – Minister, community service organisations, you’ve already said it, they do incredible work supporting Tasmanians in need. They’ve been underfunded for years and more so underfunded as a community need has increased and in the words of a service provider, I’m going to quote from them:
We’re already operating at full stretch. There is simply no room left to squeeze more from the service without risking its integrity. Government needs to fund, support and strengthen the community industry and not dismantle it.
I note in the Budget the election commitments in 2024, so the 24-25 Budget went some way to helping community sector organisations. However, they’re all gradually being phased out over the forward Estimates and that’s reflected in this interim Budget’s figures. There was an explanation of the variation in community services funding going forward saying that was a reflection of the – I just can’t find a word but anyway, that was to do with the profile. It was the profile of the 2024 election commitments.
I did the maths on the 2024 election commitments that fit within the community services sector, and by my calculations the funding reductions in this interim Budget forward Estimates are greater than the planned winding down of election commitments in 2024. It doesn’t actually match the profile, the funding decreases more than the election commitments in 2024.
That’s cuts in the funding, the reduced funding. Why are we looking at cuts over the forward Estimates in the community sector? What are you planning to cut?
Ms OGILVIE – That was a very long preamble, so I will do my best. Firstly, if we could just set the scene about what the funding is and actually does and then we have a little bit more detail about ‑ you’re asking for the tapering off question –
Ms ROSOL – The tapering of the election commitments in 2024 is less than the tapering off of the funding in community services in this interim Budget.
Ms OGILVIE – Let’s see if we can deal with that specific question. I do want to do a little bit of scene setting if I may. The Tasmanian government through 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future is committed to delivering increased financial certainty for community services organisations. I want to say that very clearly.
The Community Services Funding Review, the review, was established in 2023 to address three key government priorities aimed at supporting the sustainability of the community services sector. These being reviewing indexation, progressing longer term funding provision, delivering an outcomes framework and we’ve heard a little bit of that this morning.
The breadth of work on this is considerable. The key areas of work are intrinsically linked and the review has focused on longer-term funding arrangements for community sector organisations to give that funding certainty.
Ms ROSOL – You’re repeating things that you said earlier; you already said this.
CHAIR – Ms Rosol, please.
Ms ROSOL – This has already been covered in the opening statement.
Ms OGILVIE – Organisations need to operate with increased confidence and we’re doing that whole-of-government work. Stage 1 focus on recurrent funding, which is what you’re partly interested in for community services peak bodies and we’re about to complete that work. Stage 2 and beyond, there will be a focus on broader recurrent funding across the community services sector and cross-agency considerations that may need to be addressed. So that’s the context within which we are working. I would ask if you perhaps could speak to the question of the tapering-off issue.
Ms KELLY – If we focus on 24-25 and 25-26 in the budget movement there, it’s largely made-up of a number of election commitments that come to an end, but also there are a number of other initiatives that are outlined in the 24-25 Budget beyond election commitments that are also coming to an end and a number of other programs. There’s money that’s been transferred out of the Community Services budget, in relation to the family violence grant – they’ve moved to another part of our department. Also, our community grants and our card groups, Seniors Cards, Companion Cards and so on, moved to another area in the agency as well and they’ve come out of the Community Services budget. We also had some money that moved out to another department as well.
That’s largely the 2024-25 Budget movement, and in terms of the 2025-26, there are a number of key deliverables in 2025-26 that are for one-year funding arrangements. Some of the 2024-25 election commitments that last for two years are coming to an end. There’s also some other programs that have been funded in previous years – I don’t have the detail of all those – but some other programs that were funded in previous years that might have been funded across the forward Estimates or multiple years, are coming to an end too.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you, for that. That still sounds like cuts to me, minister, because community sector organisations are saying that they are struggling to meet the level of need as it is, with the funding that they have. These have been really necessary, important funding measures that they’ve needed and they’ve been relying on. Why are we ending these funding things and not continuing them, when we know that the need is great? Why are we not planning for the long-term? I know you’re looking at long-term funding agreements, but why are we allowing these funding agreements to end and not replacing them already? The need is huge.
Ms OGILVIE – Yes, I feel your energy and I completely agree that the need is huge and I know you’re very genuine in your advocacy, and my concern is very genuine as well. Time‑limited projects do come to an end, it’s something that happens. We make commitments for particular projects and programs and they do come to conclusion. The answer to this is again, the budget-bid process which we’re going to enter into and is open now. Again, I would say robustly, I would implore everybody to get your bids in, and if there’s programs that people, groups and organisations would like to continue, put them in the bid and I will be an advocate for this sector.
