NEW FOCUS AND $1 BILLION FOR A FAIRER VICTORIA 2008
Financial support for struggling families and more funding for mental health, disability and educational services for disadvantaged Victorians headline the Brumby Government's $1 billion State Budget investment in A Fairer Victoria 2008.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Financial support for struggling families and more funding for mental health, disability and educational services for disadvantaged Victorians headline the Brumby Government’s $1 billion State Budget investment in A Fairer Victoria 2008.
Launching A Fairer Victoria 2008 today, Premier John Brumby said since the initiative began three years ago, the State Government had already committed $3 billion to reduce disadvantage and make our communities more liveable.
“A Fairer Victoria is unique in Australia as a long-term commitment to reducing disadvantage and we are making real gains through new early childhood services, initiatives to get young people back on track, reducing family violence, strengthening the mental health system, reforming disability services, helping seniors remain independent and giving new economic opportunities for Indigenous communities,” Mr Brumby said.
“This is a solid base but we know there’s more to do which is why the $1 billion in the State Budget this week is designed to provide even greater attention to those areas which we know make the greatest difference to reducing disadvantage.”
The four new priority areas for A Fairer Victoria 2008 are: · Giving all Victorian children the best start in life: More maternal and child health support for parents of young children and an expansion of home learning, playgroups and three-year-old kindergarten to help vulnerable children; · Improving education and helping people get into work: Increased support for Victorians with a disability and their families with $262 million to enable greater independence and participation in Victoria’s social and economic life; · Improving Health and Wellbeing: A major expansion of support for schools with higher numbers of disadvantaged students and a learning plans for every Indigenous student; and · Strengthening our neighbourhoods and local communities: More emphasis on health prevention to break the link between low income and chronic disease.
Community Development Minister Peter Batchelor said that the shift in focus was a reflection of the success of A Fairer Victoria and the Government’s on-going commitment to the program.
“With increased understanding of the complex issues impacting the most disadvantaged in our community we have been able to start fine tuning and better targeting our financial and resource investments,” Mr Batchelor said.
“The success of A Fairer Victoria so far means that the issues which are now in focus tend to be the most challenging and difficult, and that is why it is being seen as a long-term strategy by the Government.
“Our goal is for communities in which everybody shares in the benefits of growth but real success requires persistence, cooperation and harnessing the goodwill and resources of government, business and community.
“Building stronger communities takes time and the progress of A Fairer Victoria will be measured in generations.”
Highlights of the $1 billion A Fairer Victoria 2008 include: · A $262 million investment in disability support and services including an additional 1000 early childhood intervention service places and a further 150 support packages for children with disabilities to attend kindergarten. · An additional $138 million for early childhood programs including $70 million for the Healthier Mothers, Healthier Babies program which will ensure every newborn has access to enhanced maternal and child health screening. · $25 million to address Family Violence including the development of the State Prevention Plan. · Boosting of Literacy programs through extending the work of the Literacy Improvement Team workforce of 60 experts for a further three years; providing a workforce of 67 School Improvement Leaders to provide more support for teachers and investing substantially in new partnerships that connect schools to the wider community including major redevelopments in Altona, Bendigo, Broadmeadows, Colac, Dandenong and Sunshine East. · $111 million for the commencement of a broad program of service reform in the state’s approach to Mental Health ( including $34 million in capital spending ), reinforcing a focus on prevention, upgrading facilities at the Veterans Psychiatric Unit at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, improving access and amenity at Ballarat Hospital and planning for an expansion of mental health facilities in Dandenong. · Increased support for refugees, including expanding the highly successful Refugee Nurse Program; helping refugee children adapt to school by extending the Refugee School Support program and funding three regionally-based multicultural liaison officers and six multilingual community education officers to work initially with East African communities. · Assisting financially disadvantaged families by increasing maximum cap on the Water and Sewerage Concession by almost 15 per cent to $182; and extending the Medical Cooling Concession of 17.5 per cent over six, rather than 3 months. · Boosting the capacity of our not-for-profit housing associations by converting around 450 properties currently leased to them, to ownership, allowing them to finance, build and buy more social housing units. These properties are worth around $120 million.
“We have also been keen to provide long-term funding or expansion of successful pilot projects. This includes support to vulnerable tenants, and Homework centres for refugees,” Mr Batchelor said.
“Our commitment is to stay the course and to assist all Victorians to secure healthier and brighter futures for their families and communities, no matter where they live.”
Detailed information on new and extended programs, funding and timelines included in A Fairer Victoria 2008 can be found at www.dpcd.vic.gov.au
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