Coalition of Community Boards' and YANQ's Trish Ferrier discusses Get Set for Work with 4ZzZ.

Listen to the interview online here.

The Get Set for Work program was one of many initiatives that will cease to exist after the Newman Government cut funding to the Skilling Queenslanders for Work scheme.

Currently it is set to expire at the end of the year, but youth advocates say the State Government may not be able to choose to cut the funding.

The Coalition of Community Boards (CCB) has put together research which it says shows the State Government has a responsibility to provide young people with vocational training programs.

Under the Vocational Education, Training and Employment Act 2000 the government has a duty to "ensure (a) employment skills development programs are developed to meet the diverse needs of young people in the compulsory participation phase; and (b) the programs are accessible by young people in the compulsory participation phase".

A member of CCB and Treasurer of the Deception Bay Community Youth Program Trish Ferrier says by cutting the Get Set for Work Program, which specifically targets young people, the government is in breach of its statutory responsibilities as set out in the Act.

She spoke with Brisbane Line Reporter Steven Riggall about the issue.

Youth Affairs Network Queensland believes young people have been the hardest hit by the Newman Government's savings drive, and community groups dependant on state funding are too fearful to speak out.

Queensland's peak body for youth affairs predicts there'll be more young people behind bars in the state within a year due to the LNP's cost cutting measures.

Click to listen to the feature

Guests Siyavash Doostkhah
Director, Youth Affairs Network Queensland
Elizabeth Fraser
Commissioner, Commission of Children and Young People and Adult Guardian

Credits
Reporter
Cathy Ban Extel, Queenland reporter

Darryl Passmore of the Courier Mail wrties that Premier Campbell Newman's public servant gag orders a return to bad old days.

THE Newman Government has been accused of trying to silence dissent by "intimidating" critics in the community sector. Senior staff of state-funded organisations have received phone calls telling them their presence at rallies protesting against Government spending cuts has been noted.

It has drawn comparisons to the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era and his goon squad of Special Branch police.

Other groups who have been quoted publicly on the impacts of cost-cutting measures have received "please explain" calls.

Youth Affairs Network of Queensland, which will lose its $270,000 annual funding from December after 20 years as the state's peak body for youth services, claims it was punished for making a public call to other groups to unite against cutbacks.

In a newsletter article, executive director Siyavash Doostkhah had criticised the Government over cutbacks affecting the disadvantaged and attacked other non-profits as traitors for "remaining silent during these critical times".

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The Director of Queensland's youth peak body Youth Affairs Network Queensland (YANQ), Siyavash Doostkhah, has today accused the Queensland Government of abandoning and betraying young people and youth workers by cutting their support services.

"Premier Newman is acting like an unprepared Army General who leaves his solders in trenches without information, support, logistics, training and supplies", said Mr Doostkhah.

"The situation we now have in Queensland is the Premier insisting his government is all about front line services, whilst severely cutting all support systems for these services. The Newman Government has single-handedly put the entire youth sector in Queensland on the verge of collapse."

Government funding cuts have impacted significantly on support services to young people, with education, training, employment, justice and health services all being affected. The Government has also commenced a review of all youth programs, following on from initial 10% cuts to funding. More youth services are likely to lose their funding in the near future.

Leading youth affairs organisations around Australia have today expressed their strong opposition to plans to silence the principal voice for young Queenslanders and the youth sector that supports them

The Queensland government has indicated that funding to the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) will cease in just over two months, making it impossible for the voices and needs of young people to be heard in important decision making processes that affect their lives. Executive director of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, Andrew Cummings said, “YANQ is the only body in Queensland recognised as having the ability to speak out on the interests and wellbeing of young people across the state. Without YANQ, Queensland will be the only state without the capacity to contribute to important national debates affecting their young people, such as education reforms, youth disability services under the NDIS and Indigenous affairs.”

YANQ has received Queensland government funding for the past 21 years. In that time it has consolidated a strong network of youth support services - able to provide informed and evidence-based advice to government on the most pressing needs for young people and improve decisions that impact their lives.

The Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) is concerned that the Minister for Communities has abdicated her responsibility to manage young people’s issues as part of her portfolio and is calling for the Premier to intervene.

Mr Siyavash Doostkhah, the Director of YANQ said, “This is a new government with some inexperienced Ministers who are making some serious mistakes.

“The knowledge vacuum in which decisions are being made is a very concerning sign. The Minister responsible for youth has not been seeking briefings from her department’s Office For Youth and has defunded the only peak body for the youth sector in Queensland, YANQ.”

Date August 20, 2012 Petrina Berry - AAP Read the article online here

Queensland's chief guardian of children has called for laws to be changed to keep 17-year-olds out of adult prisons.

In Queensland, children in youth detention are transferred to adult prisons when they are 17.

The state's Commissioner for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Elizabeth Fraser has called for the age to be raised to 18 while giving evidence to Queensland's child protection inquiry on Monday.

Ms Fraser said it would be better for 17-year-olds to serve their time in a youth detention centre until they turn 18.

"I would argue (children) under the age of 18 should be treated within the youth justice system as a matter of priority," Ms Fraser said.

The commission is an independent statutory body that protects the rights of young people in detention and oversees the child safety and youth justice systems.

Earlier, the inquiry heard a large volume of non-serious complaints to Queensland's child protection service was hampering efforts to help kids most at risk of harm.

Former Communities Department director-general Linda Apelt told the inquiry the child safety department was often bogged down with complaints that could be better dealt with by other departments, including health and education.

"We are diluting its ability to provide a safety net to those most vulnerable children by asking it to sift and sort a whole range of other concerns that could be better dealt with elsewhere in the system," Ms Apelt said.

The inquiry also heard foster children as young as 12 months old were being "drugged to their eyeballs" in Queensland to control their behaviour.

In a written submission, the Youth Affairs Network claimed seven per cent of children under four years of age in out-of-home care were on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The not-for-profit group wants the inquiry to delve into what it says is the "over-use" of medication to control the behaviour of children through a form of "chemical restraint".

Network director Siyavash Doostkhah told AAP toddlers were also being given powerful medication.

"Powerful drugs are being used on kids as young as one year old," Mr Doostkhah said.

"Various therapies that do not include drugging these kids to their eyeballs are not being offered."

by: Rosanne Barrett
From: The Australian

YOUTH workers have accused child protection authorities of drugging foster kids "to the eyeballs" as a form of "chemical restraint".

A submission from the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland to the child protection commission of inquiry headed by Tim Carmody, obtained by The Australian, revealed 7 per cent of children under four in out-of-home care are on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

More than 16 per cent of young people in foster care aged between nine years and 18 reporting taking ADHD drugs, compared with an Australian rate of 6.7 per cent.

YANQ director Siyavash Doostkhah said some children were "drugged to the eyeballs" and were unable to honestly discuss their experiences in out-of-home care.

"There is an issue with the number of young people in care who have been put on psychotropic medication," Mr Doostkhah said. "There is an alarming rate and in a way these kids are being chemically restrained."

He said the incidence of young people in care taking medication had never been widely surveyed.

In a submission to the inquiry, which will resume public hearings today, the YANQ said it had raised concerns with the government since 2002.

"The inaction of government over this time has seen a massive jump in the number of Queensland children who are being medicated," the submission said.

The inquiry is tasked with charting a course to a more effective and efficient child-protection system amid escalating costs and reports.

One in every four Queensland children will be reported to the child safety department this financial year.

More than 8000 children are in out-of-home care. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care jumped 90 per cent in six years.

Former Communities Department director-general Linda Apelt is expected to give evidence today, followed by Commissioner for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Elizabeth Fraser.

Police Child Safety and Sexual Crime Group Superintendent Cameron Harsley may also appear.

From Brisbane Times' Tony Moore.

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale wants parts of the city's mothballed Borallon Prison to have its barbed wire pulled down to become a "working farm" for juvenile offenders. Two experienced Brisbane criminologist have given Cr Pisasale's idea for low security housing units inside the prison called 'The Village' the thumbs up.

However, Youth Affairs Network director Siyavash Doostkhah disagreed with the proposal and said planners should provide facilities for young people outside of a prison.

"Any connection with an ex-prison, I think it is inappropriate," he said.

"Our view is that working on prevention, keeping young people out of the criminal justice system."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/pisasale-wants-second-life-for-prison-20120705-21jrj.html#ixzz1zoEY5m4g