The South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS) and other organisations have welcomed the changes to funding for SA community organisations announced in late June.
At this year’s SACOSS Post-Budget Breakfast, the South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis announced that State Government will now provide full indexation on not-for-profit funding contracts. From July 1, 2017, all contracts will have full indexation included. The indexation rate will be 2% for 2017-18 and 2018-19, and 2.5% for 2019-20 and 2020-21.
The new policy will be a great benefit to the not-for-profit sector. This will give consistency across the whole of government and certainty over the amount of funding in multi-year contracts. Most importantly it will ensure that the value of funding of our services are not diminished over time.
According to Ross Womersley, SACOSS CEO, "This is a great win for SA community organisations and comes on the back of years of some government departments not passing on the full rate of indexation of funding they received. In the worst cases we had contracts which included indexation but the rate was 0%!"
Evelyn O'Loughlin, CEO Volunteering SA & NT, says, “After years of campaigning, the government’s commitment to the sustainability of the sector is a welcome decision".
Commenting on this commitment by the South Australian Government, CCA CEO Dr Don Perlgut said, “This is wonderful news for Australia’s community sector. The South Australian Government has shown the way of the future. Community organisations should not have to negotiate for CPI increases to ongoing grant allocations.”
“Community Colleges Australia strongly recommends this approach to the Commonwealth and other state and territory governments in Australia,” Dr Perlgut said.
