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Click on the image to visit the 2020 Summit website
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ASU has 2020 vision
10 April 2008
One of the new Rudd Government's first initiatives has been to organise the 2020 Summit to be held in Canberra from 19-20 April. It aims to bring together 1,000 delegates from all over Australia to discuss how best to deliver Australia's future. Two ASU officials have been selected to attend. Assistant National Secretary Linda White and SA/NT Branch Assistant Secretary Katrine Hildyard will be participating in the "Strengthening Communities, Families and Social Inclusion" stream of the Summit.
The ASU has been very active on the social inclusion agenda through both state and national campaigns focused on building a sustainable social and community services sector workforce. We know this is the only way to deliver high quality services to vulnerable Australians into the future - the kinds of services that mitigate the worst effects of social exclusion. Therefore, Linda and Katrine will be in a unique position to provide information to enrich the exchange of ideas at the Summit.
You can read more about what the focus of the "Strengthening Communities, Families and Social Inclusion" stream will be here: http://www.australia2020.gov.au/topics/communities.cfm. A more detailed background paper for this topic can be downloaded below.
Both Linda and Katrine are thrilled to be attending the 2020 Summit. They see this as an opportunity to further contribute to the social inclusion agenda and to have a say on other issues affecting Australia's future and how we can work together to address them.
Let us know your views for the 2020 Summit
Linda and Katrine are very keen to hear your views on Australia's future before the 2020 Summit so we are inviting you to consider the following two questions and provide us with your feedback:
- If you could do one thing to strengthen communities and families and build social inclusion, what would it be?
- What is one issue which has changed your mind over the past ten years? What changed your mind? What solutions on this issue do you see would assist Australia into the future.
The next few sections provide some summary info on the stream Linda and Katrine will be attending along with a list of all 10 areas of discussion.
The deadline for your feedback is Wednesday, 16 April 2008. If the link above does not work, you can email Linda and Katrine here: lwhite@asu.asn.au and khildyard@asu-sant.asn.au
The ASU has also submitted a statement - you can read it here.
ASU's submission to the Australia 2020 Summit under the topic "Strengthening communities and supporting working families"
The important work of strengthening communities, supporting families and promoting social inclusion is fundamental to the job of the non-government social community services (SACS) worker.
People employed in the non-government SACS industry work in a broad variety of areas including services in disability, family support, homelessness, youth, employment support, women and mental health, and neighbourhood centres and community legal centres.
These services are found in every community across Australia - urban and rural, indigenous and migrant communities, and in every locality in the country. People that work in these services, along with their volunteer Boards of Management, are central to creating a socially inclusive society.
A significant barrier remains in reaching our social inclusion goal: services are not funded to adequately remunerate employees at the level required to attract and retain the highly skilled staff needed to provide quality support and services.
The non-government SACS industry was established in Australia in the late 1970s and 1980s to quickly and cheaply extend social service capacity and reach beyond government services provision. These services were also regarded as more flexible and closer to the community than government. Outside Australia, social services are delivered at the local level by self-managed groups with some government funding, heavily reliant on volunteers and often paying staff below minimum wages.
The role of non-government community services and the skills and expertise required has changed since this time. Governments are increasingly reliant on this industry and it has grown significantly. Predictions are that the industry will continue to grow up to 2020. While many aspects of service provision have changed, the industry's poor funding and wages compared to government services has not.
There are many examples of the paucity of funding. If we as a nation are truly committed to strengthening communities and building social inclusion we must look to strengthening the non-government social and community services industry.
Some funding problems faced by services include:
- workers in the non-government services sector are paid on average $15,000 less than workers doing exactly the same job in the government sector;
- services having great difficulty attracting and retaining skilled staff;
- funding contracts from some government funding agencies regard the funding provided as a contribution to service provision, leaving services with massive shortfalls if they are unable to raise funds themselves;
- government often provides no additional yearly funding to cover increasing costs of service provision;
- many services simply have no funding to provide training and skills enhancement for the workforce.
Funding pressures mean there is a major crisis in attracting and retaining staff. This will only increase as the workforce shrinks and labour market pressures grow.
Without a recognition of the complexity and importance of this work in building social capital and strengthening the capacity of our communities, workers will simply choose to work elsewhere.
We must urgently address the underfunding of the non-government SACS industry and poor wages of the workforce through industry planning strategies between governments, unions, employers and peak organisations.
Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
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ASU reps to the 2020 Summit: Katrine to the far left and Linda to the far right, Senator Anne McEwen and ASU-SANT Branch President Pam Andritsakis between them
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The Australia 2020 Summit stream "Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion" will examine:
- How we provide practical support to families to combine the tasks of work, raising children and caring for ageing parents
- How we make a long term difference on homelessness
- How we better harness the goodwill and commitment of the Australian community through voluntary and community organisations and philanthropic endeavour
- How we build social capital within and between communities, particularly those that are cut off from the economic mainstream.
10 critical areas for considering Australia’s future
- The productivity agenda - education, skills, training, science and innovation
- The future of the Australian economy
- Population, sustainability, climate change and water
- Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
- A long-term national health strategy - including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population
- Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
- Options for the future of Indigenous Australia
- Towards a creative Australia: the future of the arts, film and design
- The future of Australian governance: renewed democracy, a more open government (including the role of the media), the structure of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
- Australia's future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing region and world.
Further information
A vast array of information can be found at the 2020 Summit website: http://www.australia2020.gov.au/
We will provide you with information about ideas generated from the 2020 Summit on our return.
Related Documents:
Download the background paper (PDF)
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