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Local Government Responses to the Global Economic Crisis

A Local Government Forum Hosted by Cardinia Shire

18^th June 2009

 

A South East LLEN Local Government Round Table Event

 

A diverse group of Local Government staff from Cardinia Shire, the City of Casey and the City of Greater Dandenong met at the Cardinia Cultural Centre in Pakenham on the 18^th of June to jointly consider the impact of the economic downturn on young people and families in the South East.

 

The meeting was convened by Fiona Hodges, General Manager Community Wellbeing at Cardinia Shire.  Ms Hodges is also a Director of the South East LLEN and Convenor of the South East LLEN Local Government Round Table, a Board Committee.

 

The Forum was facilitated by the South East LLEN CEO, Mr Paul Di-Masi.

 

Mr Di-Masi opened proceedings by a presentation that sought to summarise the impacts of the Global Economic Crisis on young people which was drawn from a discussion paper on this topic released by the Board of Directors of the South East LLEN (click here to see the Impact of the GFC on Young People paper) and a presentation that outlined the key elements of the Commonwealth Government’s ‘Earn or Learn’ strategy to support young people through the downturn (click here to see the ‘earn or learn’ presentation).

 

David Wilkinson, Team Leader Economic Development with the City of Casey then provided a presentation outlining that municipalities view and approach to the downturn (click here to see the City of Casey presentation on the Global Economic Crisis).  This was followed by a presentation by Mark Patterson, Manager Social Development with the City of Greater Dandenong (click here to see the City of Greater Dandenong presentation on the Global Economic Crisis) and then Cardinia Shire provided their data and views on the crisis, provided by the Community Planner with Cardinia Shire (click here for the Cardinia Shire presentation).

 

After the presentations, the forum broke into small thematic groups to consider the impact of the GFC on young people and families and identified a range of these (click here to see notes from this session) .  In a broader, group discussion after presentation of the small group findings, the following were the agreed conclusions of forum participants –

 

1.      The importance of Local Economic Development in managing the impacts of economic reversals on communities – that is, a locally connected planning process.

a.      The forum agreed that a common framework for planning may be useful to support each local government’s economic planning

b.      The forum also agreed that Melbourne South East (MSE) was a useful collective group for collaborative economic planning

 

2.      That the full extent of the economic downturn has not yet been felt by communities in the South East and there is a prevailing view by the community of ‘What Crisis?’.

• Participants agreed that local government ought to be proactive rather than reactive in this important instance – to seek what indicators are available and to plan based on these indicators rather than wait for a full set of data, which will lag some months behind events.

 

3.      That the major vulnerabilities of the community in the South East is NOT so much during this phase of the downturn but may be in the recovery!

 

a.      Current indicators show little unemployment in the occupational categories prevalent in the South East;

b.      Given this, and given the broad community vulnerability to mortgage and fuel cost stress in the South East, lower interest rates and lower fuel prices are a ‘bonus’ for working families at the moment;

c.       If employment remains relatively stable in the South East, these can be seen as good times for families;

d.      However, during the recovery, given the underlying inflationary impact of a number of measures (government borrowing, etc) it is anticipated that interest rates and fuel prices will increase rapidly creating a difficult period for families in the South East.

 

4.      The economic downturn will particularly impact on young people. 

a.      Local Government should keep abreast on and compare data on youth impacts through the economic downturn

b.      ‘Earn or learn’ is a tough and comprehensive response to economic impacts on young people by the Commonwealth Government

c.       Participants asked what planning was being undertaken locally by schools and education planning authorities to respond to the likelihood of increasing retention rates and the introduction of a school leaving age of 17 years old and the need for significantly broadened provision.

 

Forum Participants also agreed that -

 

v     Local government should be proactive & take on indicators approach

v     Lets be entrepreneurial – not rely on “others” – develop local and shared solutions

v     There were many commonalities in the views and approachs of each local government in the South East  – we should continue to maintain linkages and local planning must be ready for the economic recovery, when key elements of the crisis will hit our communities!

v     Local jobs creation is good for community strengthening

v     Match skills needs / community needs / at an organisational level – the importance of linkages with community agencies.

v     Keeping young people at school longer can be a great opportunity to enhance their ‘soft’ or employability skills, thereby increasing their chances of finding and keeping work once they do leave school.

South East LLEN Annual General Meeting
20th May 2009
Monash University Berwick Campus

Morris Miselowski Speaks of the Future – Guest Speaker

 

Morris Miselowski, (principal and founder of “Success through Focus”) spoke at the SE LLEN AGM this Wednesday 20th May 2009 to a very appreciative gathering made up of a cross section of people from education, training agencies and employers.

Morris’ presentation on “Futurevation: The new social media frontier” outlined the immense changes that have occurred, just in the last 15 years, with how people interact with each other with the use of technology, incorporating the vast changes in employment opportunities.  The talk was sub titled – ‘It takes a Village” -

He reiterated that some jobs that we are doing today will be non existent in the near future.  Morris spoke of how today, a vast majority of “communities” exist in the virtual world of online social applications, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to name only three of hundreds of available social networking sites.  These social networks bring together people from across the world, which share common interests with the ability to discuss and share ideas and thoughts.

For Morris’ full presentation, including audio and notes please go to:

http://www.morrisyoureyeonthefuture.com/sellen.html

Federal Budget Summaries

The Commonwealth Budget was brought down on Tuesday 12th of May and contained a number of significant youth focused initiatives.  The most significant of these is the Jobs and Training Compact enacted by the Commonwealth which Increase the School Leaving Age nationally to 17 years, aims for 90% retention of young people at Year 12 by 2015, not 2020 as previously announced, instituted a ‘youth guarantee’ similar to that already in place in Victoria which means that any young person up to 25 years old will be ‘guaranteed’ a place in education and training by request and makes involvement in education or training the most important pre-condition for access to the youth allowance.

We have sought to summarise the budget impact of the Compact, as well as other youth programs, in the table below.  If you wish to find more information you can get more details by clicking here – Federal Budget Summary - Youth Focus

Or by contacting Mr Simon Rickard, South East LLEN Local Community Partnerships Executive Officer on 03 9794 6921 or email lcp@sellen.org.au

2009/2010 Federal Budget Summary

 

Reference to detailed summary	Program	Funding ($Millions)	Period (over)	Details	Authority
1	Jobs and Training Compact	$41.9	4 years	Strengthening Conditions for welfare payments – Youth Allowance and Family Tax Benefit A	C’wealth
2	Jobs and Training Compact	$33.7	3 years	Pathways to skills: Australian Apprenticeships Access Program – 5,500 additional places for vulnerable young job seekers. 3,650 places will be for 13 – 24 year olds.	C’wealth
3	Jobs and Training Compact	$9.7	3 years	Securing Australian Apprenticeships – securing completion through RTOs. RTOs to deliver required off-the-job training for Australian Apprentices who are made redundant or cannot complete their training with a employer.	C’wealth
4	Jobs and Training Compact	$145.6	3 years	Securing Australian Apprenticeships Re-commencement – all employees. Additional incentive payments for employers who employ out-of-trade apprentices.	C’wealth
5	Jobs and Training Compact	$83.1	4 years	Training Supplement for eligible job seekers engaged in full-time accredited training.	C’wealth
6	Jobs and Training Compact	$650	4 years	Jobs Fund – funding will establish a Jobs Fund that will support jobs and skill development through projects that build community infrastructure and social capital in local communities.	C’wealth
7	Jobs and Training Compact	$20	3 years	Local Employment Coordinators – the coordinators will manage and drive local responses to unemployment	C’wealth
8	Jobs and Training Compact	$644	5 years	Youth Attainment and Transitions National Partnership[1] – program aims to assist young people to complete Year 12 or an equivalent qualification and enter the workforce. The National Partnership has 5 components – Community and Education Engagement[2], Youth Connections[3], National Career Development, Quality On-the-Job Workplace Learning funding[4], and State and Territory Awards Payments.	C’wealth/ State
9	Jobs and Training Compact	$0.4	4 years	Incentives to employers of custodial apprentices – designed to extend eligibility for incentives to employers of custodial Australian Apprentices	C’wealth
10A	Education Revolution[5]	$14.7	4 years	School modernisation program – Funding for facilities and refurbishments.	States/ Territories
10A	Education Revolution	$2 Billion	4 years	Digital Education Revolution – for school authorities to cover the associated costs of implementing the Digital Education Revolution initiative.	States/ Territories
10A	Education Revolution	$2.5 Billion	10 years	Trade Training Centres in Schools – A further investment to raise the status of vocational education and training (VET) and better integrate the school and tertiary sectors.	States/ Territories
10B	An Innovation and Higher Education System for the 21st Century	$1.1 Billion	4 years	Demand Driven Funding for higher Education – programs include uncapping the number of public university places ($ 491 million); performance funding ($206 million); providing education to all groups in society ($433 million)	C’wealth
10B	An Innovation and Higher Education System for the 21st Century	$575 Million	3 years	Conditional funding and revised indexation arrangements – designed to increase the rate of indexation for higher education funding.	C’wealth
10B	An Innovation and Higher Education System for the 21st Century	$613 Million	1 year	Education Investment Fund – will fund 11 higher education projects and 12 vocational education and training projects.	C’wealth

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