As many of you would be aware, last week Madeleine Ogilvie MP tendered her resignation from Cabinet, and with it responsibility for Community and Multicultural Affairs, among other portfolios.
On behalf of the community services industry, we thank Madeleine for her efforts during her time as Minister. We appreciated her willingness to engage with the industry, and for her support for key industry sustainability initiatives put forward by the Tasmanian Coalition of Community Service Peaks, which will provide greater certainty to the industry moving forward.
Today, it has been announced that following a minor Cabinet portfolio redistribution, Hon Jane Howlett MP, will be the new Minister for Community Services and Multicultural Affairs. Marcus Vermey MP has also been appointed to the role of Parliamentary Secretary for Community and Multicultural Affairs.
TasCOSS will be seeking a meeting with the Minister in the coming weeks to ensure they are brought up to speed on the value of our industry and some of the operating challenges you are facing, as well as headline concerns around the recent Budget.
In partnership with Minister Howlett and the Tasmanian Coalition of Community Service Peaks, TasCOSS will look to progress important work around funding security for community services, including longer-term (five year) contracts, reviewing indexation arrangements and progressing an outcomes framework. Pleasingly, the development of the Community Services Partnership Agreement is underway, which will enable the industry, government and relevant departments to provide shared input around decision-making, and work together on industry sustainability priorities and how they can best be enacted. We’ll have more to say on this shortly.
As always, TasCOSS is here if you’ve got any questions or concerns. Please send us an email or give us a call on (03) 6231 0755.