Willie wrong on Safeguarding Children funding

If Josh Willie understood education funding, he would know the Tasmanian Liberal Government is providing additional resourcing to schools to support important safeguarding actions.

It’s entirely wrong of Mr Willie to claim existing resources are being redirected to fund the Tasmanian Government’s new safeguarding children initiative.

Our Government is providing this important and additional resource to schools after it

was recommended by the Department of Education Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

This initiative isn’t taking funding away from schools, as Mr Willie falsely claims, instead it is being supported by our Government’s continued growth in funding for Tasmanian education.

It is concerning that Mr Willie does not understand that recurrent education funding is locked in through Commonwealth legislation, the National School Reform Agreement and Tasmania's Bilateral Agreement.

Importantly, Tasmania's Bilateral Agreement clearly shows that state funding for Government schools continues to increase to 75 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard by 2027.

Tasmanians should be very worried Mr Willie is not yet up to speed on a critical national agreement signed in 2018.

These instruments are the foundation of school funding in Australia, and it is a shame that Mr Willie has chosen to make such a highly political, inaccurate and lazy accusation on funding that will improve the safety of Tasmanian children.

The reality is the Government is investing a record amount of funding in education and training in the 2022-23 State Budget – $8.5 billion over the Forward Estimates.

Overall funding provided to schools continues to increase year on year, with the Tasmanian Government continuing to meet the commitment of an additional $340 million to State Schools over 10 years (2018 to 2027) through the National School Reform Agreement with the Australian Government.

The Agreement will see an additional $490 million of State and Australian Government funding pass to Tasmanian Government Schools over 10 years (2018 to 2027).

We have recognised that schools need to be supported to take on increased accountabilities and have allocated this additional funding to ensure they have the resources needed to continue this important work.

The initiative includes:

• $26.1 million over four years from 2022-23 and $9.7 million ongoing to appoint School Safeguarding Officers in every government school as part of a Support and Wellbeing Team Lead role that would plan and implement school strategies to support the wellbeing of all students.
• $2.6 million over four years from 2022-23 and $600,000 ongoing for mandatory professional development for all departmental staff in understanding, preventing  and responding to child sexual abuse in schools, thereby building a culture of putting the child and their safety at the centre of all decisions and actions that affect them.
• $1.27 million over two years from 2022-23 to provide more support for children and young people affected by harmful sexual behaviours, including 4.0 full-time equivalent Senior Support Staff with specialist expertise.
• $3.8 million over four years from 2022-23 and $1.68 million ongoing to employ additional psychologists and social workers to directly support schools
• $2.6 million over three years from 2022-23 to fully staff the Office of Safeguarding Children and Young People to meet the demands of the work required to support all safeguarding-related activity across the Department.

We are committed to providing our students with the tools they need to support their education and development, giving them the best possible start in life.

The 2022-23 State Budget is delivering for all Tasmanians.