Responding to Labor’s policies, calls for a treechange and the power of the care economy

All the latest news from the Councils of Social Service of Australia.

ACOSS 

ACOSS welcomes the announcement by the federal opposition outlining its proposed community sector policies, items we have been championing for a long time. Over the past three years every person living in Australia has been affected by bushfires, floods, COVID-19 or some combination of all these disasters. Community organisations have been on the frontline supporting people to cope during this time. It’s vital that the next federal government, whoever they may be, better tap into the service expertise and policy knowledge in the sector to help Australia move into a period of recovery and stability. ACOSS welcomes the federal opposition for making its election commitments clear to the community sector and seeks commitments from all major parties in the lead up to the next federal election to support an open and transparent partnership with the community sector, which continues every day to be on the frontline of supporting and protecting people from all walks of life. Read ACOSS’s full response here.

WACOSS

As part of WACOSS’s recent advocacy efforts, it has secured $1 million in funding from the West Australian state government to cover additional cleaning costs incurred by community service organisations due to interaction with COVID-19 positive cases. This funding is available on a reimbursement basis for any not-for-profit community service that holds a WA government contract providing services to vulnerable community members. For more information about the scheme and to apply for reimbursement, please click here to visit WACOSS website.

TasCOSS 

TasCOSS is looking for community services chief executives, board chairs and service users to join with other strategic leaders to govern towards the vision for a connected community services industry that supports all Tasmanians to live a good life and enrich the state’s social, cultural and economic wellbeing. Apply to oversee the Industry Plan today by completing an EOI outlining what you can bring to the role and your experience and qualifications. 

QCOSS 

Early bird registrations have opened for our 2022 QCOSS Conference, which will explore Power and Politics of the Care Economy. We’re looking forward to coming together face-to-face to explore how power is created and used and what we can achieve when we work collectively toward equality, opportunity and wellbeing for every Queenslander. 

SACOSS 

With the SA state election this Saturday, SACOSS has been continuing to highlight key areas where action and commitment is needed. Our Cover the Basics policy prescriptions include action on rental affordability, digital inclusion, making concessions fairer, investing in disease prevention and health promotion, and fixing drinking water supply in regional and remote areas, together with a range of other measures. This week SACOSS has marked the party responses in its Election Report Card. Its advocacy on these critical areas will continue post-election.

VCOSS

The Victorian government is being urged to plant more trees and build more parks in Melbourne’s west. Green spaces were a lifeline for many people during COVID lockdowns, and a place for exercise and relaxation long before, but not everybody is lucky enough to have a local park. About 340,000 people don’t have a park within walking distance of their home. And people living in the western suburbs are missing out the most, according to a new Parliamentary Inquiry report. Read more on the VCOSS website.

NCOSS 

NCOSS pre-budget submission follows engagement and consultation with the many NCOSS members, other frontline services and peak organisations who have supported communities through bushfires, drought, floods, multiple COVID-19 outbreaks and associated economic and social dislocation. Click here to read the submission and learn more.

NTCOSS

Aboriginal leaders and community sector advocates are calling on the Northern Territory government to stop playing games on the detention and protection of children. Revelations in the NT News that spit hoods and restraints are still being used on children in the Northern Territory, years after the Chief Minister Michael Gunner and the Northern Territory government promised they would be banned, are both shocking and concerning. Click here to read the full NTCOSS media release.

ACTCOSS

The ACT government has responded to a call by ACTCOSS for urgent meetings to review the implementation of the Growing and Renewing Public Housing Program. The ACT government says that its Growing and Renewing Public Housing program gives public housing tenants in Canberra the chance to move out of their homes to newer homes so that older sites can be sold to raise revenue or be redeveloped into modern public housing. Click here to read more from ACTCOSS.

This article was contributed by ACOSS Community Hub.