Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I visited the Byron Youth Service to speak firsthand with them about the great work that they do with our community but also about the difficulties they are facing due to the many funding cuts they have had. For 26 years the Byron Youth Service have run programs, courses, events and activities which have really assisted the young people in the region. They have had a very meagre budget, but they have had very dedicated staff. They provide mentorship, guidance, skills and support to young people. But they have had funding cuts from both the state and federal Liberal-National governments, and these cuts now threaten their actual ability to provide these outstanding services to the community. In fact, the cuts are so severe that they are indeed threatened with closure.

Among the cuts that really affect them the most are cuts to programs such as Youth Connections. Of course, we saw in the last federal budget that Youth Connections was cut. Youth Connections is a really important program which has had a truly impressive success rate. It provides a lot of support to those young people who are at risk of disengaging or who have disengaged from school. It helps with the provision of a whole host of different activities in case management, referral, liaison and family support. There is nothing to replace this program that the Abbott government has cut. So for services like the Byron Youth Service it means they cannot provide vitally important services such as Youth Connections. It will have a very severe impact on this service, because it might close the Byron Youth Service. So I am imploring the government to fund services like Youth Connections and keep the Byron Youth Service open.