It was fantastic to have over 80 of our community services peers join us in Launceston last week for our annual lunch with the Premier, the Hon Jeremy Rockliff MP, which was made possible thanks to the ongoing support of our event partner St.LukesHealth.
In his address, the Premier made a commitment to introducing an outcomes framework for commissioning community services and monitoring progress, as well as a transition to five year funding contracts.
Our industry has called for this for many years because it will contribute to our sustainability and effectiveness. We are engaging with the Premier on how these changes will be introduced and will aim to ensure the industry is part of designing and implementing the changes.
Importantly, the Premier also recognised the need for a fit-for-purpose cost index for Tasmanian community services to ensure future investment in our industry is adequate and accurately reflects the costs of doing our critical work.
The Premier will advocate directly to the Prime Minister to have our state lead the development of this index. We’re excited about the opportunity to contribute to a national approach to an issue that is affecting community service organisations, and the people our industry supports, right around the country.
We were also pleased to see widespread support from across the community and from political leaders in response to the launch of our Fair Funding campaign last week, as well as the increased recognition of the challenges our industry is facing and essential nature of the services we provide.
In the coming weeks, we will be continuing our discussions with the Government to ensure our industry receives a fair and reasonable funding increase to enable us to continue to provide the essential services and support Tasmanians need.