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Wednesday
30 June 2010
Legislative
Council
Estimates
Committee B (McKim) - Part 1
DIVISION
9
(Department
of Premier and Cabinet)
Output
group 6
Community
development
6.1
Community development -
Community
Development Portfolio
Mr
FINCH - I am more
interested in the general situation of community development before I
get down to a couple of specifics. What is the intention of the
Community Development portfolio and how do you feel that issues will
be investigated, our community will be investigated and then our
programs actioned?
Mr
McKIM - As I said, in
broad terms the intent of the portfolio is to build capacity in our
community to increase social inclusion and decrease social
disadvantage. The mechanisms by which this is done is through
smaller offices within Community Development that have responsibility
for the areas that I mentioned earlier. But an important role
that is played by the Community Development Division is that of
engaging with the community with key stakeholder groups to find out
what they want and what the community would like to see in this area
and then allocating funding on the basis of those consultations.
Mr
FINCH - Is that going to
be like a two-way street? Will there be an opportunity for
people to come to Community Development to present their cases, their
issues and where they feel change needs to be made?
Mr
McKIM - Absolutely, and I
should introduce Greg Johannes and Nick Evans. Greg is the
Deputy Secretary in the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Nick
Evans heads up the Community Development Division and I am sure they
will both tell you that there is regular contact from stakeholders
and from community members, both into the Community Development
Division, but also into my office, as minister; it is something that
generates quite a lot of interest and we receive quite a feedback.
Mr
FINCH - Can I hear about
some of those issues that may come to Mr Evans? Are the
predominant issues being covered by those extra allocations that you
mentioned?
Mr
McKIM - The structure of
the Community Development Division - that is, the structure of the
smaller offices that support women and people with disabilities,
seniors, Aboriginal Tasmanians, migrants and refugees and children
and young people - has been conceived in order to address some
sections in our community that may be facing potential disadvantage
or that the Government has identified may need some extra assistance
or some bureaucratic assistance in the way they go forward.
I
can inform the committee that each of those six units have formal
adviser groups and councils which feed in, in policy terms and with
advice that eventually would flow up to the minister, where
appropriate, and would be actioned where appropriate.
Mr
FINCH - Do you get a
sense that we are covering off on the major issues of
disadvantage in our community?
Mr
McKIM - I think we are
covering off on a lot of the major issues of disadvantage in our
community. People, from time to time, put to me that there are
other areas that we might look at. But I am comfortable, in
broad terms, that we are covering off on major areas of
disadvantage. Could I indicate that we also have a Social
Inclusion Commissioner who reports directly to the Premier, David
Adams, whom many committee members would know. He also has an
interest, but more broadly, in addressing social disadvantage and
promoting social inclusion.
Mr
FINCH - Is there a
dialogue between his office and Community Development?
Mr
McKIM - Yes, I have met
with Professor Adams since the election and I intend to keep meeting
with him. I can inform you that, geographically, he is located
alongside the Community Development Division - and I have taken
a walk around to say hello to the Community Development staff since I
have become minister,. So there is plenty of opportunity for
both formal and informal interaction.
Mr
FINCH - I would probably
get a ruling from the Chair here. I was wondering whether we
would be able to talk about the Community Development Committee and
where that might play a role in the future?
Mr
McKIM - The parliamentary
committee?
Mr
FINCH - Yes.
CHAIR
- It does not relate to the Budget as such, unless we are talking
about funding recommendations from the policy area. So I would
allow the Minister to -
Mr
FINCH - No, that is quite
okay, I am happy to explore that at other opportunities.
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