No images? Click here NEWSLETTERWELCOMEThe 2020/21 Victorian Budget was released last week, containing extraordinary expenditure across infrastructure projects and services, much of it under the auspices of an economic response to the coronavirus pandemic. I am encouraged by a substantial commitment to early intervention investment, for which I have repeatedly called since my election, in order to reduce crime and improve community safety. I am also heartened by the delivery of some important projects for Northern Victoria across health, schools, roads, and community services. However, I will continue to scrutinise the detail closely and continue to campaign for projects that are still awaiting funding. In Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, there has been further substantial work in recent weeks with victims of crime and their families across a whole range of issues. The ongoing prioritisation of the rights of offenders over victims has been tragically illustrated, once again, through the loss of Celeste Manno. My deepest condolences and thoughts are with Celeste's family and friends as they laid her to rest this week and our commitment continues to do whatever we can to improve community safety. - Tania BUDGET WIN ON EARLY INTERVENTIONThe Victorian Government has announced a commitment of $335 million to transform the child and families systems with a focus on early intervention and prevention – including funding for family preservation and restoration programs. This is a fantastic development, for which I am very grateful, as it represents my advocacy for this specific funding. In October, I directly raised with the Treasurer, in Parliament, the urgent need for this approach. In particular, I spoke about two landmark Social Ventures Australia (SVA) Consulting reports, which support a focus on early intervention in the child protection and out-of-home care systems. I also asked the Treasurer to what extent the Government supported the principles found in those reports and called for funding and resourcing to implement those findings. More broadly in Parliament, I have repeatedly (23 times to be exact) called for a focus on early intervention, including systemic changes to focus greater funding on addressing the issues that lead to poor outcomes and crime. We need to do this much better – and earlier – to bring about the lasting generational change that is required to reduce the number of people ending up in our justice, out-of-home care, and residential care systems. The potential benefits are plentiful – improved wellbeing, less
trauma, fewer children in In respect of the Budget announcement, this advocacy would not have been possible without the tremendous collective work of the service providers who engaged SVA Consulting and the Macquarie Group Foundation to sponsor and undertake modelling that made a very clear and convincing case for critical funding to prevent 1,200 children a year from entering out-of-home care. I had the pleasure of meeting with many of these organisations where we shared an understanding for a critical systemic change – Berry Street, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, VACCA, OzChild, Anglicare Victoria, Mackillop Family Services, Mallee Family Care, Queen Elizabeth Centre, Uniting, and Youth Support and Advocacy Service. I sincerely thank them, and I thank the Treasurer, Tim Pallas, and the Minister for Child Protection, Luke Donnellan, for listening to our collective calls, committing to this desperately needed investment, and steering the child and families systems towards targeted early intervention. I am very hopeful that these changes will decisively reorient these systems and thereby deliver more effective solutions and outcomes in the future for vulnerable Victorian children and families. BUDGET 2020/21 FOR NORTHERN VICTORIA Some of the funding across Northern Victoria is listed below. Because the Budget was delayed from May due to COVID-19, there are numerous items previously announced by the Government and spending is already underway. A full link to budget information is HERE.
PETITION - SAY NO TO SEXUAL VIOLENCEMy colleague, Stuart Grimley MP, is calling on the Government to consider a new 'grab and drag' offence. Stuart was joined on the steps of Parliament last week by Melbourne woman Emm Jones, accepting her petition in response to community outrage over the verdict and sentencing in the case against Jackson Williams. Williams was recently found not guilty of the charge of intent to commit a sexual offence following a 2018 attack in which he grabbed a woman, dragged her into an alleyway, and pinned her down, until he was thwarted by an off-duty police officer. He was sentenced to a 2.5-year community corrections order for the lesser conviction of assault. The petition has already garnered more than 96,000 signatures. WORK IN PARLIAMENTStalking OrdersFollowing the heartbreaking death of Celeste Manno, I am calling on the Attorney-General to urgently review the current enforcement of stalking laws in Victoria. As part of this, I have sought clarification from the Attorney-General about why, so often, there seem to be no serious consequences or sanctions for people who breach intervention or restraining orders applied to them in relation to stalking. Beechworth Sex OffenderEarlier in the year, I asked the Attorney-General how someone convicted of multiple sex offences against young boys could, upon his release, be allowed to live within close proximity of a primary school, change his name and work where children are present. After waiting over 200 days for the answer, and despite asking for it on numerous occasions in the meantime, I was informed last week that the question now needed to be referred to the Minister for Corrections. I have therefore submitted the question again, and I look forward to getting a direct response – hopefully within the stipulated period of 14 days! Taxing victims of crimeI was informed recently that some funds held in trust by courts for victims of crime are taxable under current law. Taxing this money is cruel and adds unnecessary complications as well as financial loss to those who have already been through excessive trauma, and I have therefore raised this matter in Parliament with the Minister for Victim Support. BlazeAidBlazeAid was born out of the ashes of Black Saturday 2009. Following the easing of restrictions recently, in a period of just one month as part of the rebuilding effort following last summer's bushfires, 29 volunteers cleared 6.9km of burnt fences and constructed 10km of new fencing, using 2397star pickets. The Towong Shire has estimated that there is 69.5km of fencing still to be re-rebuilt. I thank and commend BlazeAid for their continued commitment to fire-affected communities. Bills debated in the Legislative CouncilHuman Tissue Amendment Bill 2020 -PASSED |