It’s a strange state of affairs that the state government is using out of date figures to work out where to send community grants.
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Maitland has again missed out on the $300,000 highest tier of Community Building Partnerships funding, which is reserved for areas with with high unemployment to help them increase job participation. Instead, Maitland has again been deemed eligible for the $200,000 bracket.
While this funding will be welcomed by the community groups that have won a share, failure to be listed in the top funding bracket means some projects have missed out.
A spokesperson from the Department of Premier and Cabinet told Fairfax Media that the funding allocations were made on data from the 2011 Census.
This immediately raises questions: why is the state government using five-year-old data to determine where it puts its money?
It’s not like there isn’t other data available. The Australian Bureau of Statistics constantly collects unemployment data, breaks it down and comprehensively publishes it each month. The government knows this. Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian’s office frequently sends out statements when the statewide results are positive to show how her party has made “NSW number one”.
Anyone who has looked at unemployment figures for the past two years (this month the jobless rate is 6.3 per cent – which is above the 5.1 per cent state average) knows that we are hardly living in employment wonderland in this region.
And that’s to say nothing of youth unemployment, which has been among the state’s highest at certain stages this year.
“It’s not fair that our communities are getting two thirds of the funding allocated to other electorates because we were in a mining boom five years ago,” Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison said.
If that’s true, it doesn’t make much sense.
Meanwhile, the government’s Hunter representative – the Parliamentary Secretary Scot MacDonald – said grants were important but building a strong economy was more so.
With respect to Mr MacDonald (pictured), unemployment is a key factor in weather a local economy is in good shape or not.
It may be too late for further funding to be allocated to Maitland community groups this round, but the government should work out a way to more effectively help those electorates that need it.