$336M Child Protection Boost in Vic Budget

9 News
April 30, 2012

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8459713

About $336 million will be earmarked in Tuesday's state budget to reform Victoria's broken child-protection system.

The government has released a strategy in response to 90 recommendations for an overhaul of the child protection system from a panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins.

It committed last February to spend more than $61 million to employ 19 extra child protection workers, expand family support services in areas of extreme demand, and establish three new centres where police, child protection officers and counsellors will work together to address child sex abuse.

A further $275 million will be provided in the budget over the next four years for initiatives including:

- $17 million for a new Children's Court at Broadmeadows in Melbourne's north;

- $3 million to establish a Commission for Young People, to include a commissioner for vulnerable Aboriginal children in state care;

- $27.9 million for 34 new residential care placements;

- $29.6 million to expand therapeutic residential care; and

- $51.4 million to ensure more senior child protection staff work directly with children, provide more support for frontline workers and better career progression.

Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge said she wanted government services for vulnerable children to work better across all portfolios.

"Our reform agenda and package of funding recognises the need for broad transformational change as well as the improvement of existing processes and services that are not working or are poorly targeted," she said.

An inquiry into abuse perpetrated within religious organisations was a key recommendation of the Cummins report.

Victims groups criticised the government for failing to order a royal commission and instead opting for an existing parliamentary committee, including four first-term MPs, to deal with the matter.