Homelessness Sector Staffing

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding human services. How will the minister ensure that existing agencies can continue to provide services until 30 June, when their staff have to look for new employment in order to secure their future livelihoods? Secondly, is there even a single day of crossover funding where old and new services operate at the same time to allow proper transition of clients and programs?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her question. In terms of the transition, as I said yesterday, all of the tenders were required, as one of their many requirements, to have a transition plan to ensure that things were transferred as smoothly as possible between 30 June and 1 July. I have expressed publicly already my thanks to all staff who, I am sure, have found this process challenging for them as well, and I think their good work needs to be acknowledged as well as the stress for them going forward.

Our expectation is that there will be jobs for all of the existing staff, whether it is within those agencies in which they currently work or not. That is to be determined by those groups, which have met already this week, continue to meet and continue to negotiate those going forward.

The successful tender bidders did say on the day of the announcement, 30 April last week, that they are hopeful of being able to make sure they have advertisements up and running for positions that transition. The successful bid alliance and, I am sure, the other existing providers are very mindful of ensuring that we retain all the skilled workforce in that sector going forward, whether they are to be retained within their current agency or another going forward.

I think it is important to point out, too, that within those particular services that weren't successful the funding which has gone into the pool going forward is not by any means all of their funding. Not every program is going to be affected. None of them are expected to close their doors. They all have revenue from other sources, so we would expect that the remaining services are unaffected, but it is something that the alliance is working towards very carefully.