Restoration of sport funding welcomed
After five years, three sports ministers and numerous costly inquiries, the
Howard Government has finally delivered its ‘new plan for Australian sport’,
Senator Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister for Sport, said today.
“Most of the money announced today restores funds cut over the past five
years, with a ‘top-up’ for community sport.
“After five years of drought, this announcement is welcomed.
“During the Sydney Olympics, Mr Howard was forced by sports officials to
focus on dwindling sports funding.
“Now, obliged to deliver on his Olympic promise, Mr Howard has finally put
back funds into sport.
“In the last Howard-Costello budget, $16 million was slashed from the sport
budget. Additionally, the Olympic Athlete Program (OAP), initiated by
Labor in 1994 to provide $135 million for elite athlete training, sports
science, research, elite coaching and athlete education programs, was allowed to
lapse.
“This funding package potentially restores these programs.
“However, it is a shame that sporting expertise, including coaches and
sports scientists, were lured offshore or lost the jobs because of the time
taken for Jackie Kelly to act.
“That said, Labor welcomes any increase in both elite and community-based
sport funding and other measures, including making school sporting facilities
more available to the general community.
“I have constantly pressured the Howard Government to deliver a sports
policy. The Minister received the Oakley White Paper review of sport
almost 18 months ago, and I am therefore pleased that the Coalition has finally
produced a funding package that provides athletes, coaches and administrators
with some security and continuity of funding.
“Labor will examine the community sports package carefully to ensure that
those most in need of sporting infrastructure and support, such as Australians
living in rural and regional areas and older Australians are getting a fair go.
It is essential that the balance between community-based participatory sport and
elite sport be properly weighted,” Senator Lundy said.
51/01. 24 April 2001. Media contact: Simon Tatz on 02 6277
3334 or 0418 488 295
Dr Carmen Lawrence, Shadow Minister for Industry, Innovation
and Technology
and
Senator Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister assisting on Information Technology
Coalition finally admits fouling up IT industry development
"It has taken the Coalition over 18 months to respond to a damning
report that exposed the damage being inflicted to Australian IT Small and Medium
Enterprises (SME's) as a result of their now-defunct approach to IT
Outsourcing." Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister assisting on Information
Tecnology said today.
"The Coalition's unwillingness to act sooner is pure negligence and many
opportunities for growth for SME's have now been lost. This report, released in
October 1999 by Senator Alston's Department and the AIIA jointly was titled The
IT Engine Room. Despite documenting the negative experience of SME's in the IT
sector as a result of the outsourcing, it was ignored.
"The Coalition has acknowledged today that they have fouled up IT
industry development and they have only been forced to act as a result of
Opposition and IT industry pressure. It should not have taken until the
independent Humphry Review (January 2001) into the failed IT Outsourcing Program
for the Government to admit it had a problem.' Senator Lundy concluded.
Evidence of neglect
"Further evidence published recently by the Centre Strategic Economic
Studies and the Australian Computer Society in the Information Industry Update
2001 shows the extent of the damage done to SME's in the IT sector since the
Coalition came to power" Dr Lawrence, Shadow Minister for Industry,
Innovation and Technology said today.
This report includes the observation that:
The development of Australia's information industries during the 1990's
is a tale of two periods. The first half of the decade was period of rapid
growth, but the second half was a period of relative stagnation and decline.
(page v Report Highlights)"
And further that:
Unfortunately an increasing proportion of the Australian market is being
supplied from overseas. (page v1 Report Highlights)
This report also highlights the what it describes as a 'hollowing out' if the
Australian IT sector. Despite increases in the number of very small and very
large IT businesses growing, the proportion of larger small businesses and
medium-sized IT businesses declined between 95/96 and 98/99.
When these trends are viewed alongside the decline in the IT&T
manufacturing sector, the Coalition should be condemned for sqaundering a
critical five year period of opportunity. When it should have been focussing its
procurement strategies on building the breadth and depth of the Australian
IT&T sector, it was pushing a blind, ideological line, " Dr Lawrence
concluded.
50/01.Media contact: Patrick Bindon 0419 963486 (Dr Lawrence's
office) Simon Tatz 02 6277 3334 or 0418 488295 (Senator Lundy's office)
Youth Poverty a “RITE OF PASSAGE” under Howard
The Government’s Youth Pathways Report, tabled this week by Labor, paints a
picture of young people who are in crisis directly as a result of Government
policies, Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy, said in a
speech to the Senate last night.
In particular, the Report highlights that young people from rural and
regional areas are in crisis. The report also highlights the plight of many
indigenous young people.
“With increasing costs of living associated with a GST leading to an
economic downturn, anomalies in common youth allowance and the March 20th
clawback, higher HECS payments, insecure jobs and high youth unemployment, youth
poverty seems to be a rite of passage under a Howard Government,” Senator
Lundy said.
“We now have a Government Report which says Government policy has deprived
young people of their income, of training opportunities and the consequences
have been in some cases homelessness and an addiction to drugs.
“During a recent visit to the Northern Rivers region of NSW, I heard first
hand of the hardship inflicted upon young people as a result of the Coalition’s
hard line of ‘breaching’ recipients of Youth Allowance.
The Governments Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce Report formally
documents this hardship in its findings on Income support for Youth (page 105):
“Concerns expressed were about activity testing and how quickly a
breach could
be issued. A particular focus was an apparently rigid application of
activity testing provisions, particularly upon young people experiencing
difficult personal circumstances, for example as a result of family breakdown,
sexual abuse, drug abuse, or mental health problems.
Further the report documents the inadequacies of the Job Network in servicing
the needs of rural and regional youth in its findings on Professional Career and
Transitional Support (page 48):
“Job Network agencies do not necessarily specialise in the needs of
young people as they once did and these services can be as culturally remote
for some young Australians as they are physically remote from others. In rural
and regional areas there may be no relevant services.
The report also highlighted specific issues faced by young Indigenous people
in its findings (page 77).
Young Indigenous Australians:
· have insufficient attention paid to their recreational, cultural and
spiritual needs.
· have a fractured pattern of education and employment participation
because connections between school education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander cultures and experiences, and post-school options are often not
apparent for them.
“The Youth Pathways Report, tabled in Federal Parliament this week by Kim
Beazley, will allow proper debate on youth policy after being suppressed by the
Federal Government.
“Labor understands that young people need to be secure in their basic needs
- a decent education system, social infrastructure, welfare support, accessible
health care, employment with a living wage - before we can benefit from their
full engagement in the broader national debate.
“This Government is robbing Australia of the benefit of the full
participation of our youth in our democracy. That is damage that no one can
repair completely because these are opportunities lost to us forever,” Senator
Lundy said.
The task force, chaired by Captain Eldridge from the Salvation Army, was
announced on the 1 September 1999 as a joint initiative between Family and
Community Services and the Department of Employment Training and Youth Affairs,
and was tasked with developing a five-year national action plan focused on
improving support for young people and their families during young people’s
transition to independence.
49/01.Media contact: Verity Newnham on 02 62773334 or 0418 488295
Leaked report blasts Coalition’s youth and social policy
record
A leaked government report revealed in Question Time today has sharply
criticised the Howard Government, including comments that its policies have
forced some young people to engage in petty theft and drug dealing to survive.
The explosive comments are contained in the Prime Minister’s Youth Pathways
Action Plan Taskforce report - personally commissioned by the Prime Minister in
September 1999 and due a full 13 months ago.
And now we know why it is late in coming.
Despite the Government’s best efforts to sanitise the report it highlights
how mean and out of touch the Coalition really is.
Despite talking up its youth and family friendly credentials, the Coalition’s
punitive and ill-conceived policies have had a tragic impact on young people and
their families.
At the centre of the report is a scathing criticism of the Government’s
Youth Allowance policy, penalty regime, and access to employment services.
The report notes that there are massive problems with the Government’s
Youth Allowance policy, which is not flexible enough to adequately protect
highly disadvantaged young people.
“Marginalised young people indicated that, in some circumstances,
they had turned to petty theft or drug dealing to survive.” (page 105)
Youth Allowance has been hailed by the Government as one of its greatest
social policy achievements - but it was merely a cost-cutting exercise.
Levels of assistance were slashed to thousands of families, leaving them with
inadequate means of support, and it now appears, the pursuit of desperate
measures to survive.
The Report also criticises the punitive penalty regime, noting:
“A particular focus was an apparently rigid application of activity
testing provisions, particularly upon young people experiencing difficult
personal circumstances, for example as a result of family breakdown, sexual
abuse, drug abuse or mental health problems.” (page 105)
The community expects that there are responsibilities for young people on
income support, but cutting people off benefits without caring for their
personal circumstances highlights the Howard Government’s cold heartedness.
The report also criticises the impact of the Government’s policies on
helping young Australians into work:
Income support is not well integrated with other forms of support for
young people.In particular, the linkages between Centrelink and Job Network
agencies need to be made more youth-friendly, and based on a measurable
level of expertise in youth-based practice.. (page 104)
Young people face high up front and on-going costs associated with
study or job search and existing income support levels are not sufficient to
cover these costs. (page 104)
The Coalition and Minister Kemp have no credibility with young people . At
best, they make the right sounds about wanting to involve young people in
decision-making, but their words ring hollow when measured against their
actions.
Their policies have driven increasing numbers of young people into poverty,
and the refusal to release such a damning report shows the Howard government is
in denial. It sees youth affairs as a public relations exercise only, not a
genuine effort to tackle and solve real issues.
Our youth have been at the sharp end of many of the Howard Government’s
most conspicuous failures.
This Government has robbed Australia of the benefit of the full participation
of our youth in our communities.
Mr Howard and Dr Kemp stand condemned for this, but doubly condemned for
trying to suppress young voices raised in concern.
48/01 Contact: (Wayne Swan’s office) - Matt Linden 0410
643 525 Contact: (Kate Lundy’s office) -Verity Newnham 0419 474 588
National Youth Week
The Labor Party welcomes National Youth Week celebrations, which commences
today.
“This week is a fantastic opportunity for young people to express their
views and to make recommendations on their vision for our country’s future,”
Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy said today.
The 2001 National Youth Week will celebrate and recognise the value of all
young Australians to their communities by:
showcasing young peoples’ talents, contributions and achievements;
promoting a positive image of young people;
ensuring youth participation in planning and development of all National
Youth Week activities;
acknowledging the common interests of young people as well as their diverse
backgrounds and circumstances; and
enabling young people to express their ideas and be listened to.
“Initiatives like National Youth Week demonstrate to people of all ages the
valuable role that young people play in our society and culture,” Senator
Lundy said.
“Government departments, organisations supporting young people and young
Australians should all be congratulated for their efforts in coordinating such a
spectacular showcase of youth skills and talent,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Attached is a copy of Senator Lundy’s speech to the Australian Young Labor
National Conference.
47/01. Media contact: Simon Tatz on 02 6277 3334 or 0418 488295
