Advocacy Priority: Support Strong and Inclusive Communities

The Budget provides $852 million to support the delivery of social and affordable housing in 2021/22, although this compares poorly to much larger social housing investments in the Queensland and Victoria state budgets, and falls well short of what is needed.

LGNSW would also liked to have seen an increase in funding for Specialist Homelessness Services beyond existing commitments.

However, the two-year $57 million allocation to the Together Home program for rough sleepers is good news, and follows LGNSW recommendations to the housing strategy and homeless people protocol inquiry.

We welcome the four-year, $27.9 million funding for the expansion of the NSW Drug Court to Dubbo in an effort to tackle the ice epidemic that has particularly afflicted regional communities.

The Budget commits $82.75 million to domestic and family violence prevention measures in 2021/22, allocated to frontline services, victim safety support, courthouse saferooms and the JUSTConnect evidence system. While LGNSW welcomes this funding we are disappointed not to see funding for councils to implement primary prevention initiatives (such as those in the Local Government Domestic Violence Toolkit), as recommended by a recent parliamentary inquiry.

The Budget commits $150 million in 2021/22 to extend the free preschool program for NSW families for the two years before school. This will benefit children attending council-run preschool services and, in turn, assist councils to continue employing early childhood educators. LGNSW would like to see funding relief extended to all early learning service types, not just preschool.

Relevant Conference Resolutions

• Homelessness: Cumberland, Kyogle and Forbes (2019)
• Regional expansion of the NSW Drug Court: Lismore (2019)
• Domestic and family violence prevention: Parramatta (2020)

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