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Katie Woolf spoke with (NTCOSS) NT Council of Social Service CEO Deb Di Natale on the NT Budget · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolvan three sixty online at Mix one O
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  Speaker 1: four nine dot com. You are listening to three sixty
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  Speaker 1: and throughout the morning, we've been catching up with various
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  Speaker 1: industry leaders to get their take on the budget, which
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  Speaker 1: was indeed handed down yesterday. I know that Leafanocchiaro, the
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  Speaker 1: opposition leader, is currently delivering her opposition reply to the budget,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll have Leah on the show tomorrow morning. Joining
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  Speaker 1: us on the line right now. Northern Territory Council of
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  Speaker 1: Social Services CEO, also known as MT Costs, Deb Di Natali,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Deb.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Deb. We've been asking a series of questions to our
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  Speaker 1: industry leaders and I'll ask you the first one. What
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  Speaker 1: was your reaction to yesterday's budget?
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  Speaker 2: Well, firstly, this is not a budget for Territorians who
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  Speaker 2: are doing it tough. What this budget does is it
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  Speaker 2: focuses on the crisis and pointy end response and what
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  Speaker 2: we want in terms of the greatest outcome for community
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  Speaker 2: is early support and prevention across all programs in the
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  Speaker 2: nt SO.
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  Speaker 1: Deb, taking that into account, what areas did you think
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  Speaker 1: the budget fell short for? In your industry, well, what
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  Speaker 1: we thought.
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  Speaker 2: There are a number of plans that we've been working on,
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  Speaker 2: and one of the obvious ones is the Aboriginal Justice
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  Speaker 2: Agreement that there has got twenty three community led responses
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  Speaker 2: that enable leaders, local Aboriginal leaders to put in place
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  Speaker 2: local strategies that will address offending behavior. That represents years
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  Speaker 2: of work and it would have been good to be
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  Speaker 2: able to see us making some progress in that space.
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  Speaker 2: We also had a commitment around that that we would
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  Speaker 2: get funded. We were advised that it would be considered
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  Speaker 2: as part of the budget process. So to see not
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  Speaker 2: one single dollar of new money allocated to that, that
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  Speaker 2: was definitely a shortfall in the budget.
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  Speaker 1: So there's no money allocated to that at all in
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  Speaker 1: this budget, no new money.
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  Speaker 2: There's no new money allocated to that at all. There's
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  Speaker 2: no when you have a look at business as usual,
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  Speaker 2: which is across the sector, and we look at a
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  Speaker 2: number of areas like domestic family and sexual violence, We
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  Speaker 2: look at our legal centers, we look at our aging programs,
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  Speaker 2: we look at our young people. When we look at
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  Speaker 2: that and we see while we're only funded in terms
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  Speaker 2: of business as usual, this to me is a huge
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  Speaker 2: oversight for our industry that does all the important work
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  Speaker 2: to ensure that no one's left behind.
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  Speaker 1: Deb, what will be the impact of that from your perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the impact of that is that we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to get the solutions we need. Domestic family and sexual
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  Speaker 2: violence is one of the examples that we know the
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  Speaker 2: crisis is deepening there. We already have thirty two crisis
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  Speaker 2: accommodation support services across the NT that are stretched in
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  Speaker 2: terms of its funding. We need to see increases in
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  Speaker 2: this in order to get better outcomes.
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  Speaker 1: De boughts your message for the government this morning, taking
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  Speaker 1: into account what you've just said to us about those
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  Speaker 1: areas where it seems as though there's been quite the
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  Speaker 1: short form from your perspective.
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  Speaker 2: My message to the MTG is pretty clear. You've done
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  Speaker 2: the hard work. You've got great policy solutions there. You've
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  Speaker 2: got an Aboriginal Justice Agreement, you've got domestic violence sexual
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  Speaker 2: violence action plans. All of those plans are very good,
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  Speaker 2: but in order for them to come to fruition, you
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  Speaker 2: need to fund the implementation of those plans.
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  Speaker 1: Deb, were there any positives for your industry from your perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Look, the positives are that the hard work has been
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  Speaker 2: done and that there is a good policy framework to
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  Speaker 2: guide a number of those programs. So we would say
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  Speaker 2: that that is definitely a positive and we also welcome
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  Speaker 2: the reduction in the efficiency dividend across the community and
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  Speaker 2: social services sector, which I think is about zero point
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  Speaker 2: five percent lesson it would have been. That is good,
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  Speaker 2: but that's not enough to get us to where we
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  Speaker 2: need to be.
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  Speaker 1: So, deb Dina Tali from the Anti Council of Social Services,
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  Speaker 1: would you say that the budget was a positive or
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  Speaker 1: a not so positive one from your perspective, I would.
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  Speaker 2: Say that the budget is not a positive budget in
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  Speaker 2: terms of the whole of the territory because we haven't
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  Speaker 2: got the money allocated to the places we need them
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  Speaker 2: to be. That is early support, supporting families, ensuring that
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  Speaker 2: we get in in terms of the prevention end. If
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  Speaker 2: we're not in the prevention end and the prevention space,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to be having the same conversation in twenty
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  Speaker 2: years time.
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  Speaker 1: Well, deb Di Natalie, we always appreciate your time. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks Katie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: That is the NT Council of social services. There, the
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  Speaker 1: CEO deb Di Natali