'Neglected and taken for granted': Community sector launches campaign for more government funding

Historic government underfunding has brought the community sector to the brink of collapse, with at least two organisations at risk of trading while insolvent, according to ACT Council of Social Services CEO Dr Devin Bowles.

Dr Bowles launched a new combined campaign in the lead-up to the October election for a fair funding solution for the ACT’s community groups to whom Canberrans in crisis go for help.

Now these groups as a whole were facing their own crisis.

Dr Bowles said if any were forced to fold, the consequences would be devastating for the people who rely on them.

He said ACT Government funding had not kept pace over the past 15 years, with a 30 per cent increase in population and rising costs, particularly in the last couple of years.

At the same time, particularly as interest rates climbed and the cost of living soared, waiting lists had lengthened and demand for services swelled.

“Our emergency food banks are seeing an unprecedented number of visitors,” Dr Bowles said.

“Shockingly, a growing number of the people who require emergency food relief are employed and are sometimes in households with multiple people who are employed.

“If people in work are struggling to make ends meet, the task for people who are not employed can be impossible.”

There was an increased need for services across the board, covering housing, drug and alcohol services, family and domestic violence, disability, mental health, older Canberrans, children and families.

Disability services, in particular, were at a real pinch point.

However, the amount of support available was declining as donations dried up and fewer people were able to volunteer.

Dr Bowles said the sector had papered over the cracks by cross-subsidising services and staff donating their own time, but it was now being taken for granted.

“Each year, the government has asked more of the sector but not increased funding in the same way, and so each year just gets a little bit harder,” he said.

“People just assume that we’re going to be there because we always have been, for as long as people can remember, and with that reliability, has come neglect.”

Dr Bowles said the community sector was calling for a 30 per cent increase in government funding in line with population growth, indexed in individual contracts to future growth.

It wanted sustainable funding that paid for the full costs of services so organisations did not have to cross-subsidise.

Dr Bowles said the demand was a reasonable one that would not place that much pressure on the ACT Budget, which had offered only modest support this year and not commensurate with the scale of need.

He said less than 3 per cent of the approximately $8 billion budget went to the community sector.

“So a major increase in investment to our sector would have only a negligible impact on the ACT Budget overall,” Dr Bowles said.

“In fact, a 30 per cent increase in investment in our sector in line with the historic population increase would have less than a 1 per cent impact on the overall Budget.”

Dr Bowles would not comment on the government’s priorities or whether some of the big infrastructure projects were taking too much of the Budget.

“I don’t want to name a particular thing where money should come from,” he said.

“The fact is the government has a huge number of options. We account for a tiny percentage of spending.”

Dr Bowles said the extra investment would be worth it.

“We help people throughout their lives, often at inflection points,” he said. “Investment in our sector is an investment in the humanity of our city.”

The sector was asking Canberrans to provide a message of support at the campaign website.