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In the lead-up to our 90th anniversary celebration, NCOSS spoke to Gary Moore, Director of NCOSS from 1995-2006, about how things have changed for the social service sector in the past 20 years.
1. How would you describe the social service sector landscape during your tenure, and what were the key issues facing communities?
It was an era of child protection failures at government level, and partially within the sector too, and there was a lot of focus in NSW on how the Department of Community Services kept on getting it wrong. There were some inquiries and it was very significant.
Secondly, the Howard Government introduced capital gains tax exemption reforms in the late 1990s. We started to see a lack of affordable housing starting to occur in the private rental market, and also there had been of a lack of funding for social housing.
The third area was the impact of problem gambling, particularly when the [NSW Premier Bob] Carr allowed gaming machines into hotels in 1997. The 1990s were the beginnings of things like competitive tendering. You started to see the entrance of for-profit providers into some areas — residential aged care, and children’s services. It accelerated significantly over the next 15 years.
2. What strategies did you use to ensure the voices of smaller or regional member organisations were heard and included?
NCOSS worked to support smaller organisations and think through what we could do so that smaller organisations had long-term security. A number of other peak organisations picked this work up in the 2000s. How do you get small organisations to effectively win funding? How do you get them to partner together? How do you get them to reduce their costs while still maintaining their front office?
We also started taking events to the regions and involving regional organisations in things such as preparing the Pre-Budget Submission — a major effort each year. We also tried to hold regular network meetings like you have today.
3. Were there any major policy wins or losses for the sector that stand out to you?
One of the wins was in the run-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics. Nobody wanted street homeless people, or anyone at risk of homelessness, to be bussed out of Sydney, like what happened in Atlanta in 1996. We had a pretty reasonable win in that we got an extra commitment of funding for emergency accommodation for a five to six month period. Of course, it didn’t last into 2001, but we certainly averted that issue in Sydney, and that was largely due to the sector, especially NCOSS and Shelter.
4. How do you think the challenges facing the sector today compare to those in your time?
The first thing is housing — it’s become a lot worse over the past 20 years. Secondly, the domestic and family violence sector is a lot more organised today. It’s hard to know comparatively, in terms of the level of domestic violence in the community compared to the population size, just exactly how much worse it’s become, because it was totally underreported and we don’t have data from the 1990s.
5. What gives you hope about the future of the social service sector in NSW?
One of the things I think is really important is the level of partnerships that have developed within the sector and across sectors in recent years. I think that gives one hope for the future that we’re stronger together. It’s an overused term that is actually true, and there’s strength in that.
Another thing has been the growth of the social enterprise movement over the past 20 years. It’s never been regarded as part of the social sector, but they do assist disadvantaged people and do similar work. Is there space for an integration of the social enterprise sector with the social service sector?