Questions & Answers Paper No. 158 - Parliament of New South ...

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7030 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MONDAY 12 OCTOBER 2009 (1) The costs associated for monitoring were raised by industry and considered during the consultation process on the draft Protection of the Environment Operations (Underground Petroleum Storage Systems) Regulation 2008. As a consequence, amendments were made to the draft Regulation prior to its commencement on 1 June 2008 to include staged implementation of the Regulation's requirements and a scheme of exemptions. Details of the types of exemptions and eligibility requirements are available in the UPSS Exemption Plan, which can be found on the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water's website. (2) Fee exemptions are considered on a case-by-case basis. (3) It is industry best practice to monitor tank levels daily and evaluate losses at least monthly. Leaks detected at the level required by the Regulation represent tank losses in the order of 500 litres per month. This represents a critical risk to groundwater resources and a financial loss to operators. (4) Yes, as part of the Regulatory Impact Statement process. *7299 HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT—Mr Peter Debnam asked the Minister for Planning, and Minister for Redfern Waterloo— In relation to high rise development: (1) What action has the Government taken since the exhibition period for the Ashington Group's proposed high-rise development at 33 Cross Street, Double Bay closed on 5 June 2009? (2) Is the Minister aware of continuing community opposition to the Ashington Group's proposed highrise development? (3) Will the Minister now reject Ashington's proposal and return the project to Woollahra Council for their consideration? Answer— (1) Since the exhibition period concluded, the Department of Planning has provided all of the submissions to the Proponent, and a Preferred Project Report has recently been submitted for assessment. This is available on the Department's website www.planning.nsw.gov.au. The Department has also engaged the NSW Government Architect to undertake an expert review of the Preferred Project Report. (2) Yes. (3) No. I have refused the development after a thorough and rigorous Part 3A assessment and referring it back to council would be inappropriate. *7300 COUNSELLING SUPPORT—Ms Pru Goward asked the Minister for Community Services— (1) What counselling and support has been provided to the DOCS caseworkers who worked in 2007 with the parents of the child known as "Ebony" who were convicted of her murder and manslaughter respectively? (2) How many other caseworkers were there in the teams these caseworkers were part of? (3) What mentoring and support was available to these caseworkers in 2007? Answer— (1) Caseworkers involved in the matter of "Ebony" and their colleagues in the unit have been provided with a range of supports including a Critical Incidence Debrief, psychologists from the debrief were located in the office and were made available more informally, counselling was made available, access to the Employee Assistance Program was reinforced, internal support teams and support from all levels within Community Services were also made available. Staff working within the unit have accessed enhanced training and professional development opportunities including stress management and various trauma workshops. Casework Specialists have also provided practical supports to the teams at the unit managing the matter. Staff have been provided with legal support and communications through out the trial of the parents in recent months. (2) At that time there was an establishment of 19 child protection caseworkers in the unit. (3) Community Services recognises the need to continue to work towards promoting an organisational culture where anxiety and feelings of discomfort about families are openly acknowledged and managed in the context of a safe and supportive supervisory relationship. Community Services has been actively pursuing such a cultural practice change since launching the professional supervision strategy in January 2006. Mentoring was available to staff at the Community Services Centre through the Casework Specialist whose position involved on-the-job mentoring and role modelling. Caseworkers could access the Produced by Altsoft Xml2PDF
7031 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MONDAY 12 OCTOBER 2009 Casework Specialist through their Manager or on an informal basis for advice on policy, procedure or to access informal professional support in relation to their role. It is acknowledged that working within the field of child protection is very complex, personally demanding and sometimes confronting work. In addition to Supervision, all allocated cases are reviewed by a Caseworker with their Manager at least once every three months. This is in addition to regular guidance provided by managers on active cases which occurs as needed. Caseworkers also have access to the Department's Learning and Development branch to access courses to aide professional development. Team and unit meetings and planning sessions also provide opportunities for support and mentoring. *7301 OUT-OF-HOME CARE CONTRACTS—Ms Pru Goward asked the Minister for Community Services— (1) How many Out-of-Home Care contracts arising from the March 2007 EOI have been awarded to NGOs? (2) How much money is involved? (3) How many Out-of-Home Care contracts arising from this EOI have not been awarded? (4) How much money is involved? (5) What is the department's revised estimated cost of upgrading KIDS to the level required for an integrated service as recommended by Wood? (6) When is work on this upgrade expected to be completed? Answer— (1) To date 27 agencies have been or are being contracted and are developing their service according to set milestones to provide capacity for family preservation, foster care, kinship care and residential placements across NSW. (2) Out-of-Home Care program expenditure is contracted to $223 million in 2009-2010. (3) In April 2009, the Out-of-Home Care funding rollout was halted and funding negotiations with 15 agencies were suspended pending the outcome of an Out-of-Home Care Review. This review was commissioned by Treasury, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Community Services and considered the impact of growth in Out-of-Home Care and examined areas such as policy, practice, contracting and effectiveness of current systems. As a result of the Review, a group of agencies were left with unfinished funding negotiations and were advised that until the outcome of the Out-of- Home Care Review was considered by Cabinet, negotiations would not progress. (4) In order to finalise the remaining Out-of-Home Care contracts, the Community Services' budget requirements to grow additional capacity of 625 placements by 2012⁄2013 has been projected at an additional $35 million annually. (5) The estimates for the KiDS Core Design Upgrade as previously scoped have not changed from those included in the budget papers of June 2009. (6) The original plan as outlined in the budget papers of June 2009 was to complete the Kids Core Design Upgrade by June 2011, delivered in three stages with the first due in mid-2010. *7302 MINISTERIAL LETTERHEAD—Ms Pru Goward asked the Premier, and Minister for the Arts— (1) Why hasn't the Premier replied to my letter requesting disciplining of the Member for Canterbury and Minister for Community Services for using ministerial letterhead in pursuit of non-parliamentary appointments? (2) Are there guidelines prohibiting NSW Ministers (and indeed, all Members of NSW Parliament) from touting for positions outside Parliament on parliamentary⁄electoral or ministerial letterhead? Answer— The Premier responded in writing to the matters raised in Ms Goward's letter on 9 June 2009. *7303 STATE WATER AND DWE OFFICES—Ms Katrina Hodgkinson asked the Minister for Water, and Minister for Regional Development— (1) Why has State Water relocated their office in Tamworth, effectively detaching it from the Department of Water and Energy Office (DWE)? (2) Will the Minister confirm if there are similar plans to do the same with the Leeton office of State Water? (3) How much will it cost to relocate the office of State Water in Leeton to another location? (4) Will these costs in (3) to relocate the State Water office in Leeton be directly funded by the NSW Government, or will the irrigators and water users of the area be required to fund these costs? Produced by Altsoft Xml2PDF
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