STATE Altona MP Jill Hennessy will this week use Parliament to question the state government’s decision to slash funding to Hobsons Bay’s Youth Voice program.
Funds allocated to Hobsons Bay’s youth for the past decade have instead been given to the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association for youth activities, split between Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong. “While I commend the work done by the AVWA, that funding should clearly have been allocated from multicultural affairs funding and not youth affairs funding,” Ms Hennessy said. “The community can’t afford to lose programs such as this and what it offers youth of Hobsons Bay. I call on the government to reinstate this critical funding.” The Youth Voice program, which last year received about $38,000 from the government, provides leadership-training activities for people aged 12-25 from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
Hobsons Bay councillor Luba Grigorovitch, who chairs the Youth Voice committee, said the loss of funds was a loss for the community.
“I think it’s a mistake that the Baillieu government has made this funding cut.”
Lauren Bradley, a spokeswoman for Youth Affairs Minister Ryan Smith, said it was unfortunate that Hobsons Bay’s youth had missed out this year. “The Coalition’s Engage! program proved very popular with 326 organisations applying for 102 grants. Unfortunately, the Youth Voice committee was not successful this year. The Office for Youth has provided support to the council, including transitional funding for the program.”
Asked why the funding had been cut after 10 years, Ms Bradley said: “Unfortunately, that level of detail is only available to the applicant.”
