13. The Lost Opportunity
After years advocating for and operating essential services for young people mostly on very little money it has been frustrating to see the wave of federal intervention funds which were allocated in the name of young peoples welfare wash over the region without significantly addressing the gaping holes in youth service provision. As mentioned above we estimate that for 1% of the total cost of the intervention we could have met the outstanding youth program infrastructure and operational needs for the whole of Central Australia for the next three years.
The chart below costs some aspects of the intervention and what comparatively could have been achieved with such funds. Costs are based on anecdotal information from builder, public servants and others involved in delivering infrastructure.
| Item /cost | Evidence Base | What others have done with similar money | Evidence base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention “No Alcohol No Pornography sign hundreds erected across the region Cost $8000 per sign |
None, have caused much offence to families particularly the references to pornography | Could run a school, holiday program on a town camp or remote community for two weeks | Such programs are widely recognised as improving child wellbeing and safety improving school attendance and reducing impact of substance misuse. See D’abbs Mclean 2000 and Fietz 2005 |
| Wage of a General business manager for 1 year Cost $120-$200,000 |
In many cases these workers are in experienced with high staff turnover exacerbating this. Very few demonstrable outcomes to date | Employed 2 full time youth workers with an operational budget | Such programs when well run improve child health and safety, strengthen families and reduce levels of substance misuse, improve school attendance and reduce levels of crime. See D’abbs McLean 2000 and Fietz 2005 |
| demountable housing compound for GBM’s Cost $400-$800,000 each community |
See above, Also worth noting such housing is only built to last app 5 years and is unsuitable to live in for any length of time |
1-2 Three Bedroom Bessa Block Houses could house youth program staff or provided much needed community housing |
There still aren’t youth workers in most remote communities often due to a lack of suitable staff housing. Community housing is often overcrowded un-maintained and poorly designed, appropriate housing is a major gap in most communities |
| Cost of employing a community employment broker for 1 year/ inc admin overheads $200-300,000 |
Such positions are proving untenable. Attempting to place often unskilled untrained workers in positions that don’t exist. Such were provided in place of CDEP which whilst it struggled was working well in some locations |
Similar funds could pay for two youth development workers and team of casual workers to run programs for young people and families | Projects such as these are proving to achieve concrete employment and job creation outcomes. A good example is the Jaru Pirrjirdi Program at Yuendumu which has led to the employment of more than 50m local young youth |
| Cost of child health checks $72,700,000 | Only 65% of children done and no information created that was not known prior to the health checks | All needed infrastructure for all remote communities in the southern region to provide youth development projects plus operational and salary costs for 25 years | Mt Theo demonstrates the clear gains that can be made in terms of child safety, education and work training through the provision of youth development projects |
| Overall government spending to provide infrastructure and wages and operational costs for government workers in the communities - $328 million in 07/08 and a further $30.8 million in 08/09 | These costs are for services provided to government rather than to the communities | This funding could have paid for upgrading all remote communities across the NT to provide state of the art youth development programs in every community for 10 years | As stated above, youth development programs have the potential to provide a safer and more stimulating environment on the remote communities, with long term and sustainable outcomes in health, education, training, cultural reconnection and youth safety. |
| In the 08/09 NTER allocation, there will be $55.2 million for accommodation for government workers | These is no evidence that the extra government workers actually provide any services to the communities | This funding could provide more than 100 houses for permanent staff in remote communities | The major limit on service provision across the NT is lack of accommodation for operational staff. |