The McGowan Labor Government is investing $450 million in the 2022-23 State Budget to support safe, strong, fair and thriving communities across Western Australia.
The 2022-23 State Budget includes significant investments to programs that will assist communities, families, seniors and young people, including:
- $160.1 million in new funding for community service providers and not-for-profits;
- Supporting our community services sector and not-for-profits to deliver important initiatives to improve the lives of Western Australians.
- $95.7 million funding boost to support Western Australians with disability;
- Including a massive funding boost for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants, support for the Taxi User Subsidy Scheme, and to increase the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) Modification Grant to $20,000 and expand services in regional WA.
- $40.4 million Kimberley Youth and Community Justice Response package;
- A range of initiatives across government aimed at addressing youth offending in the Kimberley.
- $34.4 million allocated to a range of family and domestic violence prevention and support measures;
- Taking the McGowan Government’s investment in programs to tackle the scourge of family and domestic violence, hold perpetrators to account and protect those at risk, to more than $150 million.
- $114 million to boost child protection and support services to help keep Western Australian children safe;
- Boosting the child protection system and supporting services to protect vulnerable children and their families, and steer at-risk children away from the justice system. Includes additional frontline child protection staff, the creation of a Chief Practitioner to oversee the Specialist Child Protection Unit at the Department of Communities and an expansion of the pilot Therapeutic Court in the Children’s Court of WA.
- $11.1 million to expand the Target 120 program from 11 to 20 locations across WA;
- With $4.3 million of this amount included in the Kimberley Youth and Community Justice Response package for Broome, Derby, Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing.
- $4.5 million boost to community legal services;
- $2.5 million for the Banned Drinkers Register (BDR) and Takeaway Alcohol Management System (TAMS); and
- $2.2 million funding boost for Cadets WA.
An additional $152.8 million has been committed to the WA Government’s ongoing response to the recommendations handed down by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, including funding to meet costs associated with the National Redress Scheme and civil litigation.
For more information, visit https://www.ourstatebudget.wa.gov.au
As stated by Attorney General John Quigley:
“The McGowan Government remains committed to righting the wrongs of the past, with significant additional funding allocated to meet the costs associated with the National Redress Scheme and civil litigation.
“We’re allocating significant resources to important initiatives that form part of a multi-pronged Government response to diverting juveniles away from the criminal justice system.
“A $160.1 million injection to support local service providers and not-for-profits will go a long way to ensure our communities are supported in a number of ways, including having access to quality legal services.”
As stated by Child Protection, Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence and Community Services Minister Simone McGurk:
“By protecting at-risk children and steering them away from the justice system, we are not only investing in their future, we are also helping make the community safer.
“Sadly, for too many women and children, home is the most dangerous place of all and that’s why the McGowan Government is building on our record investment to combat family and domestic violence.
“This Budget will ensure the community groups who deliver life-changing programs to help our most vulnerable can continue their important work for years to come.”
As stated by Disability Services Minister Don Punch:
“This Budget reinforces the McGowan Government’s strong commitment to improving the lives of the 411,500 Western Australians living with disability, their families and carers.
“By investing in key services that support people with disability and make WA more accessible, the State Government is empowering people with disability to participate in all aspects of the community and the economy.
“This funding boost will support the thousands of Western Australians receiving disability supports for the very first time through the NDIS, as well as improving accessible transport options for people with disability across the State.”
