Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many years ago, when I was in the Victorian police forces as a sergeant in what's called the Melbourne CBD, the shopkeepers came to me because they were getting sick and tired of youth crime and wanted us to do something about it. So I established a youth activities program. These were young people basically about to go to youth detention. Some had actually finished a prison term and were getting another sentence. The magistrate gave them the opportunity to go on my youth activities program or go to youth detention. An interesting thing was done in conjunction with the Preston Youth Justice Office. After six months, I said, 'Where have all the young people gone?' They said, 'They've all got jobs.' Once you put young people out of harm's way and give them the opportunity, they can do exceptionally well.

I led an inquiry a number of years ago, in 2017. It was under the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, and the report of the inquiry was called No one teaches you to become an Australian. This was after the gang attacks in Melbourne. A legend in Melbourne by the name of Les Twentyman appeared before the committee as part of the inquiry. He has his own foundation. He said: 'You know what? If you put more money into youth workers and youth programs, you'll get more young people out of gangs.' That's more young people whose lives we can save. I thought, 'What a fantastic idea.' When appointed as Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, I pursued this and came up with a program called the Safer Communities Fund, which was for high-risk youth and targeted at those between 12 and 24 years old. I made sure it was very much focused on either keeping young people in school if they were on the verge of leaving or, if they had left, trying to get them back into programs where they could get training, education and a job. The other, harder ones were those who had been incarcerated and were coming out. It was about providing guidance so they didn't go down the same path. This is very similar to programs they run in the US.

Initially, we committed $20 million to the program under the former coalition government. We had over 400 applicants and realised that wasn't enough funding, so, to the credit of the former Treasurer and Prime Minister, we upped the funding to $120 million and funded 133 organisations, including $29.7 million which went to Indigenous youth initiatives. The one thing we made sure occurred after speaking to so many groups was this. They said, 'there's no use putting funding in place for just 12 months; we need it for three years. So we made sure it was for three years for services for the youth at risk, who were becoming involved with the criminal justice system. This was the eligibility criteria. The programs increased youth engagement with local communities by building resilience and et cetera. We did engagement with sporting and recreation clubs, including bus hires and everything else like that. We had also budgeted in the October 2022-23 budget, and Labor redirected $50 million under round 7 of the community fund. That was really disheartening not only for me but also for all those organisations which had done so well.

A really sad and disgraceful thing is about to occur. In April this year all the funding stops. So I wrote to 133 recipients of funding from the Safer Communities Fund from all over Australia. There were only two interventions that I was involved in. One was actually in Queensland. I think it was the Queensland African Communities Council. The other was the Hope Australia Soccer Academy. Again, this is very much targeted at assisting African youth. What did the Labor Party do? They raised all this in Senate estimates: why would you intervene? The simple reason I intervened is that there's no other way these groups would actually get funding.

We assisted two groups, but I have here the letters responding back to me from other groups who all have missed out. Jessie Braun from Fusion Australia in the Swan electorate in Perth wrote:

To date, the Life Skills program has reached 176 individual students since July 2022 and seen young people improve their self-awareness, relationships with peers, resilience and ability to problem-solve and manage confidence.

For those 176 youngsters, there will be no more funding in the future under Labor.

Annie Shirley from Junction Support Services in the Indi electorate wrote:

We are disappointed the Safer Communities Fund will not continue as we have utilised the current funding to run an early intervention crime prevention program for young people.

It's called Diverge. She continued:

Our Diverge Program is due to end in April 2024—

That's a common theme. The Diverge program has been highly successful. Working with police and Wodonga TAFE et cetera, it is precisely what we want to occur in the education sector.

Tamsyn Hall from Wesley Mission Queensland wrote about the It's a Wrap program in the Moncrieff electorate:

Since beginning in June 2022, It's a Wrap has assisted approximately 286 young people.

Overall, the program has been highly successful and pivotal in supporting the needs of young people at a time when it is needed most.

Again, she says that the funding is about to be cut.

Catriona Kucks from BABI Youth and Family Service in the Bonner electorate also talked about the funding being cut this year. She wrote:

This will lead up to 30 young people a day unsupported and potentially unaccounted for in the Wynnum area Tues-Fri every week.

Christopher John from the Resolve coaching initiative in the Rankin electorate—I believe that's the Treasurer's electorate—says that they are seeking funding from a number of sources to cover the gap. He writes:

Since it began in June 2022, Resolve has provided intensive coaching for 85 young people and had more than 1,300 contacts …

Again, the funding stops in April.

Julianne Sanders from SHINE for Kids in Parramatta wrote:

The grant has enabled SHINE for Kids to provide mentoring support to young people with a parent in prison who are at risk of entering the justice system in Townsville, Western Sydney, and Frankston.

Gerry Blackwell from the Youth Development Foundation in the Dickson electorate writes:

The overwhelming positive feedback from schools, providers and family members speak volumes about the program's effectiveness and the value it brings to the community.

Again, that funding will stop in April.

Samantha King from Youth Up Front in the Mackellar electorate writes:

Through the implementation, countless lives have been positively impacted, providing valuable support and opportunities to those who have need it the most.

However, recent discussions have indicated a cessation of funding …

We know about that, unfortunately.

This news has left many parents, school personnel and local and state government concerned about the far-reaching consequences …

Jessica Bishop from Migrant Information Centre in the Chisholm electorate in eastern Melbourne wrote:

The project facilitated 27 group programs with 594 total participants.

MIC found that refugee and migrant youth tend not to participate in recreational activities or receive support when offered by mainstream services such as councils …

Again, this funding will be cut.

Teale Blessington from Netball Queensland's Diamond Spirit program in the Moreton electorate writes:

Our greatest challenge has been the time-sensitive nature of the funding. Netball Queensland's capacity to deliver the program …

She writes that its allocation of resources will be limited in the future, whilst they have not been able to attract further funding past April 2024.

As I was saying, a lot of these electorates are obviously Labor held electorates, so, overall, this program targets the most vulnerable in Australia. I didn't care what electorate it was; it was all about helping young people. Christine Marley from Fearless Toward Success in the Blair electorate wrote:

At the end of April 24 and without further funding post-April 2024, we will no longer be able to support recidivist youth achieve their self-directed goals …

Nor will they have organisations such as this to help.

Again, we've seen gang violence in Melbourne and Queensland and right across Australia. In Ipswich, Vyleen White, 70, was, sadly, murdered, stabbed to death in front of her granddaughter. Obviously we've got a police investigation underway, but I think it's fair to say that there were a number of young people involved in that horrendous crime. The whole thing we need to do is early intervention. For Labor members not to stand up to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer—they should bow their heads in shame, because this is an outstanding program which helps young people and stops them going down the wrong path, where they end up in jail and destroy their lives and destroy the lives of other people. It's absolutely disgraceful that this program has been cut. The great news is that the election of a coalition government in the future would result in this program being funded, because we realise how important it is to support young people and make sure they don't go down the wrong path. Unfortunately, Labor hasn't got the same view.