Budget 2011-12: Place-based measures

The Government has announced, in the 2011-12 Budget, funding for the implementation of place-based measures.

As part of its Building Australia’s Future Workforce package, the Government recently announced funding of over $250.1 million over four years for the implementation of place-based measures in ten selected locations.

The measures are:

• Community Innovation Through Collaboration, which includes a $25 million Local Solutions Fund for innovative projects that draw on local expertise, including from state and local governments and the not-for-profit and private sectors. This measure also funds an Australian Government Service Coordinator and Community-Based Facilitators in each location to provide support and ensure that all employment and social participation initiatives are accessible to Centrelink clients and that their needs are being met.
• Extensions to Communities for Children to provide early intervention supports to people receiving Parenting Payment. Three new Communities for Children services will also be established in Bankstown (NSW), Shepparton (Victoria) and Rockhampton (Queensland) to support the package of measures;
• the extension of income management;
• increased support for people needing assistance through case coordination (Department of Human Services);
• compulsory participation requirements for jobless families; and
• compulsory participation plans and matching supports for teenage parents.

Complementary measures that apply to areas broader than the ten specified locations but are integral to linking communities to economic opportunities are:

• the continuation of the School Attendance Enrolment Measure (SEAM);
• extension of Priority Employment Areas, Local Employment Coordinators and Jobs and Skills Expos (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations);
• regional education, skills and jobs plans; and
• Job Services Australia Demonstration Projects for highly disadvantaged jobseekers (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations).

The measures seek to address persistent and concentrated disadvantage in ten locations and are targeted at providing support for disadvantaged families, job-seekers and vulnerable children and parents in those areas. The locations are:

• Playford in South Australia;
• Hume and Greater Shepparton in Victoria;
• Burnie in Tasmania;
• Bankstown, Shellharbour and Wyong in New South Wales;
• Logan and Rockhampton in Queensland; and
• Kwinana in Western Australia.