Month: August 2022

Rental support payments for flood victims and grants for rural landholders will soon be available for all communities affected by the June-July NSW flood event with more than $23 million in relief funding from the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments.
 
The jointly funded package through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) includes:

• Rental Support payments for up to 16 weeks to help households secure accommodation.
• A Rural Landholder Grants program providing grants of up to $25,000 for rural landholders who are ineligible for existing grants.

 
Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt said the funding package will be available to people in all 42 local government areas (LGAs) subject to a natural disaster declaration.
 
“The rental support payments and rural landholder grants will help with the immediate costs of clean-up and repair, which is an important first step in the recovery process,” Senator Watt said.
 
New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said the funding will flow through Service NSW and the Rural Assistance Authority.
 
“The rental support payments covering up to 16 weeks rent will help people find safe, secure accommodation while they begin the recovery process, and the $25,000 grants will help kick-start the clean-up for the many rural landholders who’ve been affected by flooding yet again,” Ms Cooke said.
 
The 42 LGAs subject to a natural disaster declaration following the June-July flood event are: Bayside, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Canterbury Bankstown, Campbelltown, Central Coast, Cessnock, Cumberland, Dungog, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Kempsey, Kiama, Lake Macquarie, Lithgow, Liverpool, Maitland, Mid Coast, Muswellbrook, Nambucca, Narromine, Newcastle, Northern Beaches, Oberon, Penrith, Port Macquarie Hastings, Port Stephens, Randwick, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Singleton, Strathfield, Sutherland, The Hills, Upper Lachlan, Warren, Wingecarribee, Wollondilly and Wollongong.

Teachers in NSW will be able to spend more time teaching thanks to the introduction of hundreds of new roles in admin, leadership and support. 

Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said more than 200 new administration roles will be trialled in public schools from Term 4 2022 to reduce teacher workload.  

“Our teachers are skilled professionals and their time is precious. However, they are stretched across too many non-teaching and low value activities,” Ms Mitchell said. 

“Running a modern-day school is complex. We need to look at the work staff do in schools and think differently about how it gets done.” 

The new admin roles will work with our teachers to undertake non-teaching tasks such as data entry, paperwork, and coordinating events and excursions. 

Ms Mitchell said the new roles will reduce the admin burden on teachers, and open doors to people wanting to re-enter the workforce or upskill. 

“It’s a great opportunity for parents and carers who have the necessary skills to do these jobs well, to work within the hours of school drop-offs and pick-ups,” Ms Mitchell said. 

“It’s also a chance to up-skill our current non-teaching, school-based staff to provide greater support to our teachers.” 

In addition, recruitment has started for 780 Assistant Principals (Curriculum and Instruction) roles to support teachers to adopt best practice and use resources as effectively as possible.  

Ms Mitchell said the NSW Government is committed to continuous school improvement and providing principals and teachers with the support and resources to drive better student outcomes. 

“This is only the beginning, and we will be scaling up what we see working once this trial concludes next year,” Ms Mitchell said. 

“We will continue working closely with principals, teachers and non-teaching staff to ensure that time is spent on what matters most – teaching and supporting our students.” 

The boost to the workforce is supported by research by the University of Technology, Sydney which found that instructional leaders, robust system support and quality professional learning significantly improve teachers’ capacity to meet students’ needs. 

A new analysis of rental data by the Everybody’s Home campaign to coincide with Homelessness Week reveals the NSW regions where renters are hardest hit by the toxic combination of surging increases and stagnant wages.

The three year analysis cross references SQM rental data with wage growth for workers in retail or health care and social assistance and rental increases. Workers in those occupations saw average wages increase only 2.3 per cent annually over three years. 

But over the three years leading up to 22 July, 2022,  rents surged by the following average amounts each year.

	3 year annualised change	Rent 28 July 2022
South Coast	13.4	$599.91
Central Tablelands	12.8%	$463.68
Murray Region	12.2%	$385.146
Riverina	10.8%	$389.10
North Coast	10.5%	$570.22
Broken Hill/Dubbo	10.1%	$384.69
Blue Mountains	9%	$545.03
Central Coast	8.9%	$594.03

Everybody’s Home national  spokesperson, Kate Colvin, said the compounding impact of spiking rents and stagnant wages was smashing living standards and putting people at risk of homelessness.

“We know that rental stress is the gateway to homelessness,” Kate Colvin said. “When you combine surging rents with flat wages you put people in a financial vice. For the past three years that vice has been tightening.

“Homelessness providers are reporting stories of families with full time breadwinners being forced to live in tents. In a wealthy nation like Australia this is nothing short of a national disgrace. 

“The recent change of Government represents an opportunity for a reset. For a decade construction of new social and affordable housing has withered. Now is the time to get moving and give people on low and modest incomes genuine choice.

“Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese have been clear that public spending should expand the economy and improve productivity. Social housing meets those objectives better than almost anything. There really is no better return on the taxpayer’s dollar than providing the homes Australian families need to be healthy, productive workers, and to raise their families with the stability and security of a decent home.”