THE Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC) and Centacare Brisbane have adopted a “wait and see” approach to the latest State Budget.
Executive directors from both organisations have identified some positive measures, but also warn of additional expenses faced in the near future.
Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt said “the State Government’s commitment to increasing subsidies and support to pensioners is welcome” but he questioned the Government’s commitment to indigenous issues.
QCEC executive director Mike Byrne said the cost of transitioning Year 7 to secondary school by 2015 was a major consideration.
Centacare Brisbane executive director Peter Selwood said a probable wage increase for community service workers later this year needed to be taken into account.
Mr Byrne said the recent State Budget had delivered some additional funding to the Catholic education sector.
“I am pleased that the pool of State Government recurrent funding for the non-state school sector has increased by a total of 9.4 per cent in this budget,” he said.
“This is up from 4.3 per cent in 2010 and reflective of the increasing cost of delivering education.
“There has also been a small increase in the Transport Assistance Scheme of $174,000 which will allow more families to access this important program.”
Mr Byrne said QCEC was still waiting for confirmation of the out-come of recent funding negotiations with the Government around the cost of transitioning Year 7 to secondary school by 2015.
He said the QCEC and Parents and Friends Federation would jointly launch a pre-election campaign in the coming weeks to raise a number of funding issues with both sides of state politics.
Mr Selwood said the State Budget’s funding to help rebuild Queensland after natural disasters earlier this year was welcome.
He also said he understood funds were limited because of these disasters.
“However, disability services remain significantly under funded,” he said.
“This is likely to become a major issue when the a decision is handed down by Fair Work Australia in terms of pay increases for community services workers as expected later this year.
“If Centacare is required to pay our staff more – and I think that is very much warranted – the State Government will have to increase our funding to cover this increased cost.
“Otherwise many Centacare ser-vices will not be viable.”
Mr Arndt said “the State Govern-ment’s commitment to increasing subsidies and support to pensioners in relation to electricity, rates and water bills is a welcome recognition of the impact of rising living costs on the most vulnerable in the community”.
“However, while the Government continues to fund Closing the Gap initiatives to address disadvantage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and prog-rams to reduce the over-representation of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the criminal justice system, more needs to be done.
“As the Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth indicated in its report this week, imprisonment rates are rising, not falling.
“The Government needs to sit down with local communities and work with them to develop programs and strategies which close the gap in this area and they need to fund them adequately.”
