Month: June 2022

Children and young people in the Northern Beaches will benefit from significantly enhanced mental health services with a $11.4 million investment under the 2022-23 NSW Budget.
 
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the funding will be used to expand hospital and community services, including establishing acute paediatric specialist mental health beds at Northern Beaches Hospital and supporting local community mental health and drug and alcohol treatment services.
 
“This significant additional funding for child and youth mental health services on the Beaches will help ensure the appropriate treatment and support is available to young people and their families in a more timely manner,” Mr Hazzard said.
 
“This will significantly increase capacity and reduce wait times by enabling a comprehensive child and youth mental health service to operate on the Beaches seven days a week as well as the establishment of a new youth drug and alcohol treatment service.”
 
The $11.4 million for child and youth mental health services in the Northern Beaches includes:

• $7.5 million to establish four dedicated acute paediatric specialist mental health beds at Northern Beaches Hospital, which will provide for the establishment and operation of the beds.
• $1.4 million to employ additional staff, including senior multi-disciplinary clinicians, to support Northern Beaches Child Youth Mental Health Service in the Brookvale Community Health Centre.
• $1.1 million to recruit additional staff, including peer workers and clinicians, to support and operate the Northern Beaches Youth Response Team service out of Mona Vale Community Health Centre seven days a week.
• $1 million to develop a new youth drug and alcohol community treatment service in Northern Sydney Local Health District, including employing senior medical, nursing and allied health clinicians to operate the service.
• $365,000 to provide a full-time child and youth psychiatrist at Northern Beaches Hospital.

 
The Youth Response Team (YRT) is based at Macquarie Hospital in North Ryde and provides outreach services to young people across the region, including the Northern Beaches, which is one of the highest users of the service, comprising about 40 per cent of referrals to the outreach service. The YRT has a 97 per cent success rate of diverting young people from emergency departments.
 
Minister for Mental Health Bronnie Taylor said youth mental health and suicide prevention is a high priority for the NSW Government as demand for support has been increasing over the past couple of years.
 
“We have seen a significant increase in mental health and self-harm presentations for young people to emergency departments across NSW,” Mrs Taylor said.
 
“In response, the NSW Government has been investing significantly in improving child and youth mental health services and supports to reduce the number of mental health presentations.
 
“This includes the establishment of 25 ‘Safeguards’ Child and Adolescent Mental Health Response Teams, which will provide rapid, short-term acute care for children and adolescents, a much-needed alternative to hospital and one that will reduce repeated emergency department attendances, with at least one team currently operating in Northern Sydney LHD.”
 
The NSW Government is investing $2.9 billion to provide mental health services and support for people across NSW as part of the 2022-2023 NSW Budget.

Flood-affected communities across NSW will be able to obtain free legal advice as a result of a $3 million funding investment to aid ongoing relief and recovery.

Commonwealth Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the Commonwealth funding would ensure people recovering from the NSW floods can access critical legal support and advice.

“This significant investment will help to deliver free, practical legal advice in areas such as tenancy, insurance, debts, employment and family violence,” Mr Dreyfus said.

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman said the floods have taken an immense toll on communities in Northern NSW and the Hawkesbury region.

“This funding injection, allocated by the NSW Government, will help people in these flood impacted communities receive the legal support they need to get their lives back on track,” Mr Speakman said.

Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said the funding will be divided between Legal Aid NSW’s Disaster Response Legal Service, the Tenants’ Union of NSW, Western Sydney Community Legal Centre and Justice Connect.

“A total of 60 local government areas across NSW were impacted by flooding in February and March and it’s important we have the right support in place to help flood-affected residents access the legal advice and assistance they need,” Ms Cooke said.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt said flood impacted areas are still recovering.

“Navigating complex paperwork after a natural disaster can be very overwhelming, and this support will ensure communities have access to much-needed resources,” Senator Watt said.

This funding is in addition to a $680,000 funding boost provided to the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre (NRCLC) in April 2022, to help the NRCLC deliver critical legal services to people recovering from the flood crisis.

Further information about the services being provided by the legal assistance sector in response to the floods can be found at www.disasterhelp.legalaid.nsw.gov.au or at https://www.clcnsw.org.au/legal-help-flood-affected-communities-nsw-2022.

The NSW Government will take another crucial step towards dismantling organised crime with new powers and tougher penalties targeting money laundering and unexplained wealth.
 
The reforms represent the State’s toughest ever laws targeting organised crime and will see NSW introduce world-leading legislation targeting the use of dedicated encrypted communication devices by criminals to avoid law enforcement.
 
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the reforms were designed to strike organised crime networks at their financial base, stopping criminals from profiting from their actions and incapacitating them financially.
 
“Organised crime is all about drug supply and money – and to truly shut it down we need to shut down the flow of dollars that fuels it,” Mr Perrottet said.
 
“These reforms will better arm law enforcement with the powers they need to confiscate unexplained wealth and create new offences and tougher penalties for those seeking to launder money derived from criminal activity.
 
“Organised crime and the technologies that criminals use to operate are always changing and evolving, and these reforms will put our state in the strongest position to deal with these insidious crimes.”
 
Deputy Premier and Minister for Police Paul Toole said these laws give police tough new powers to infiltrate organised criminal networks which increasingly rely on dedicated encrypted devices to avoid detection by law enforcement.
 
“We know these devices are being used to plan serious crimes like drugs and firearms smuggling, money laundering and even murder. These reforms will make it an offence to possess these kinds of devices and allow us to better target high-risk individuals from using them to orchestrate crime,” Mr Toole said.  
  
“Organised crime in this State is on notice. If you think you can hide the ill-gotten gains of crime, you are wrong. If you think you can avoid detection by using encrypted devices, you are wrong.”
 
The reforms announced today include:
 

• New powers to confiscate unlawfully acquired assets of major convicted drug traffickers
• Enhanced powers to target and confiscate unexplained wealth from criminal gangs
• Expanded powers to stop and search for unexplained wealth and more effectively investigate organised crime
• New prohibition orders to target high-risk individuals likely to use dedicated encrypted devices to avoid law enforcement

 
Acting Commissioner David Hudson said the reforms would significantly assist police in the fight against organised crime. 
 
“Organised criminal networks and the technologies they use to coordinate their illegal activities are forever evolving,” Acting Commissioner Hudson said. 
 
“These networks go to great lengths to hide from the eyes of law enforcement, but we intend to use every power possible to fully investigate those suspected of serious crimes and put a stop to their activity. 
 
“Today’s announcement will significantly increase our ability to target every element of these criminal networks – including the wealth and assets gained from their illegal activities – to keep the broader community safe.”
 
Legislation to underpin the new reforms will be introduced when NSW Parliament returns for the Spring session.

The Public Service Association has today slammed the NSW Government’s plan to hit striking workers with draconian fines, with the union emphasising that shooting the messengers won’t fix the state’s many problems.

Minister for Employee Relations Damien Tudehope today announced he would increase the maximum penalties for striking in response to the industrial unrest created by his government.

Public Service Association of NSW General Secretary, Stewart Little, said the government had created the problem by mismanaging public services and grabbing power from the independent Industrial Relations Commission.

“The state government created this situation when they snatched power from the independent Industrial Relations Commission, which has successfully managed industrial issues for decades,” Mr Little said.

“This government has mismanaged and underfunded public services. It has sacked and mistreated frontline workers. It’s spent a decade lighting a hundred separate bin fires across the state and now Damien Tudehope reckons he can bully frontline workers into staying silent about them.

“Public sector workers have a deep sense of public duty and they don’t strike lightly. They’ll only take industrial action when a government has mismanaged things to the point of crisis.

“If Damien Tudehope reckons he can shoot the messenger he’s mistaken.

“New South Wales is already one of only a few democracies on earth where workers get fined for exercising the human right to strike. The fact this government thinks it’s now appropriate to tighten the screws on workers speaks volumes.”