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Page 30 Senate Friday, 21 October 2016 develop opportunities such as this and build on the success of a program like the Clontarf Foundation and Dudley football club partnership? Senator Scullion: We make substantive investments right across Australia. The Clontarf Foundation is clearly for targeted young blokes, but we have a number of other investments. We have the Girls Academy. We now have the Stars Foundation that targets the engagement of young women. We certainly see the Clontarf model being a very, very successful model and we are going to continue to make some investments. For some of the details, perhaps one of my officers may assist. Ms Hefren-Webb: We provide funding to the Clontarf Foundation of $34.4 million, which assists around 7,900 boys in multiple locations across Australia. As the minister indicated, we also fund a number of providers who work specifically on girls academies, role models and leaders. We also fund the Stars Foundation, and we fund some specific girls academies like at Kormilda College in Darwin. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: The department helps fund those programs? Ms Hefren-Webb: That is correct. Mr Matthews: It would be about $120 million overall for about 2½ years, with broad support for a range of initiatives from scholarships through to mentoring of students and in-school support. It is a range of things. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Regarding the program on Kangaroo Island, I am aware that some of the local community contributed about $1,000 each to help pay wages and cover the costs of board and food for the boys who came over. Is the department able to provide funding at that sort of detailed level to help with jobs? Ms Hefren-Webb: We can probably provide you with detail of funding going to Clontarf and what specific locations that is for. I do not know if it would get down to each project activity, but we can have a look at that. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: If you could take that on notice it would be great. Mr Matthews: I am not sure of the specifics of the Kangaroo Island one—whether it comes under what we fund or if it is something separate. I am not sure, but we can chase that up. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: I think it might be separate, so I would like to know. Senator Scullion: We can offer you a comprehensive brief at any time on matters, as we offer the committee and other members of parliament. If you have a particular interest in Kangaroo Island and some of these other matters, we are happy to provide an additional briefing on that on notice. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Thank you very much. Mr Matthews: What I would say is that, generally, most of them—Clontarf, Role Models and Leaders Australia, Stars Foundation and even Australian Indigenous Education Foundation—work on government contributions, some contributions from parents and corporate contributions. So quite often there can be a mix of funding sources going into those organisations. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: In the interests of time, I would like to go to the issue of employment, particularly for Indigenous women. I note that in a report from 2014-15 the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey showed that only 52 per cent of Aboriginal women were participating in the labour workforce. Given the importance that has been placed on encouraging greater participation by women in the workforce—in particular, by Indigenous women—what plans does the government have to increase that number from 52 per cent? Mr Eccles: Maybe Ms Hefren-Webb could talk about some of the programs we have to support women, and then we can talk a little bit more about some of the programs that are predominantly around employment. It will be sort of a combination of the both that would go to the issues that you raise. You are exactly right. Ms Hefren-Webb: We do have a lower level of Indigenous women in the workforce than would be optimal. A lot of them are undertaking parenting and caring responsibilities, so that is part of the equation we need to understand. Indigenous young women do outperform Indigenous young men in terms of educational attainment through school, but then we do not see the same translation to the workforce. So we do have a number of programs that target women. As I said earlier, Role Models and Leaders Australia fund programs for girls to encourage them to think beyond high school, their future and their future career pathways. We have programs like the Wirrpanda Foundation, which runs the Deadly Sista Girlz Program in WA. Overall, we have about $21 million in female-specific programs happening in the IAS. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Is that $21 million in funding specifically for this? Ms Hefren-Webb: Specifically for supporting young women in their career development and aspirations. As I said, the reasons a lot of Indigenous women are not in the workforce are complex and related to family FINANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Friday, 21 October 2016 Senate Page 31 responsibilities and other matters. So it is about understanding that story, encouraging Indigenous women to participate if that is what they are keen to do and if it is the right time in their lives, and also encouraging them to complete their education. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Does the department work with the Office for Women? Ms Hefren-Webb: We work very closely with the Office for Women on their gender strategy. We have done some really good work with them on understanding trends in the labour force, trends in caring, trends in parenting, Indigenous women's ownership of business, entrepreneurship and also Indigenous women's accumulation of retirement incomes. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: If you cannot tell me now, you can take this on notice: are there are any specific projects that are on foot at the moment that you could give me a little bit more information on? Mr Eccles: I will start at the broad end and then maybe Ms Anderson can go into a little bit more detail. Our employment programs are one of the cornerstones of the work that we do. It is based on the view that a job is so fundamental to someone's wellbeing and aspirations—looking after family and other things. We have a number of employment programs that really are depending on an individual's personal circumstance across all our programs. We have some like the VTEC program where we work with people with multiple barriers to employment and give them training and then place them into jobs. We work with the VTEC— Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Can you tell me how many participants there have been in that specific program? Mr Eccles: Yes, sure. We have just hit the milestone of 5,000 permanent jobs arising from the VTEC programs. All in all, across all of our programs, since September 2013, there have been over 44,000 employment instances or commencements. We do not have the number who are women but we will certainly endeavour to take that on notice. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: Are there plans to roll out VTEC in Ceduna? Mr Eccles: Not at this stage. We do have other programs in Ceduna. One thing we could do on notice is to get you a fairly detailed outline of the Ceduna employment programs that we have in place. There are quite a few things we are doing in that area. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: The feedback I had while I was there was that VTEC might be a goer there. So perhaps this is some feedback for you, but I would appreciate if on notice or during a briefing we can have a further discussion. Senator Scullion: A lot of people say: 'Oh VTEC, that goes well. Look at all the jobs they have created.' But if you have a VTEC in a place, it does not affect the jobs that are actually available, and it is predicated on finding a job first. So somebody has to put their hand up with a real position, somewhere, and then we find someone with a trade for the position. But in places like Ceduna, one of the challenges is that there just aren't any jobs. I would love to have more jobs. Sometimes it is a critical mass issue. I think it is a process that we should move more and more to rather than just a VTEC model. Right across the board, we should be trying to identify a job and then put someone in it. The issue around VTEC in Ceduna is probably more about critical mass and the availability of jobs than the model we use. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: My final question is in relation to the Women's Safety Package. In particular, I understand that $100 million were allocated to reduce Indigenous family and domestic violence. Are you able to provide me with a breakdown of how that funding is being spent? Ms Hefren-Webb: The $100 million related to the whole package. I might pass to my colleague, Tarja Saastamoinen, to answer the details. Ms Saastamoinen: Of the $100 million in the Women's Safety Package, $21 million has been set aside for PM&C to manage, in particular, Indigenous initiatives. It is funding a number of different types of initiatives for women and to support women's safety in communities. It includes things like support services for women in communities who are affected by violence, it includes other types of services around addressing attitudes and behaviours toward women and girls in communities and it— Ms Hefren-Webb: I will also add that it funds some improved police responses to domestic violence in Queensland and the Northern Territory, some activities to reduce the likelihood of perpetrators reoffending and some training for nurses who are delivering services as part of the Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program. Senator KAKOSCHKE-MOORE: With regard to training for police and nurses, you mentioned that the funding has been allocated to police in Queensland and in the Northern Territory. Will it be rolled out to other states? FINANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
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