A Dean Winter Labor Government will deliver a Fresh Start for children and young people in Tasmania.

Children and young people have too often been ignored in the making of government policy.

A Labor Government will:

• Develop a Youth Housing and Homelessness Action Plan
• Deliver a whole-of-government Child and Youth Empowerment Strategy with meaningful input from young people
• Fully implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry

Why we need it

After 11 years of the Liberals, Tasmania’s children and young people have not been a priority of the Government.

We have seen the Child Safety Service stripped bare, struggling to retain staff and starved of the resources it needs to help the children who need it most.

And the Commission of Inquiry has shown that our youth justice system has failed.

We need a Fresh Start that focuses on young people and listens to them.

The details

A Dean Winter Labor Government will:

• Develop a Youth Housing and Homelessness Action Plan.
• Deliver a whole-of-government Child and Youth Empowerment Strategy.
• Work with young people to redesign and strengthening the Premiers’ Youth Advisory Council to make it more meaningful and effective.
• Establish a standalone Youth Court to deal with youth criminal offending and child safety matters, to reduce backlogs, reduce reoffending, and actually reduce crime.
• Fully implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry, including through delivering new youth justice facilities as soon as possible.
• Undertake a review of ongoing carer allowances and payments and, in the meantime, provide a one-off payment of $1,500 to carers in receipt of the current Carer’s Allowance - to reflect the increased cost of living and their contribution to our child protection system.
• Establish a Mental Health and Wellbeing Menu pilot for Tasmanian Government schools, to access specific funding to run optional programs that support the mental health and wellbeing of Tasmanian children.