Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 6:43:52 to 7:29:51
The department provides expenditure data for major advertising campaigns, including 'Stop it at the Start' and 'Consent Can't Wait'.
Topics: Social services, Government advertising
Speakers: Kerrynne Liddle, Melissa Evans, Grant Lovelock PSM, Richard Baumgart, Michael Lye, Dorinda Cox, Hon Katy Gallagher, Kath Paton, Thea Connolly
moving into the Department of Social Services. Um and so I invite those officials to come to the table. I now welcome uh the wonderful uh Senator and the Honorable Katie Galagher, Minister for Women, Government Services, Finance and Public Service representing Minister for Social Services. Minister, do you wish to make an opening statement?
>> I don't. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you. I'll also welcome the Secretary of the Department of Social Services, Mr. Michael Lye. Mr. Lie, sorry. Mr. Lie, do you want wish to make an opening statement?
>> No. Thanks, Jim.
>> Thank you. Uh I now call officers from the department of social services in relation to whole of portfolio corporate matters and I will invite questions and senator little you have the call.
>> Thank you. Thank you very much line lock. Um I've got some questions in relation to advertising specifically to the stop it at the start campaign. Thank Thank you, Miss Evans.
>> Afternoon, Senator Evans, the chief
>> How are you?
>> Richard Algo, manager, corporate and government services. What's your question, Senator?
>> Thank you. Um, as you know, the stop it at the start campaign commenced uh in 2016 under the former coalition government. Phase five of the campaign was in the market from the 17th of June to the 30th of April 2025. Can you tell me what was the expenditure for stage
>> We've got that from 1 July 24 through to 31 December 2025. Uh we spend 13,425,347. Uh that's exclusive of GST. That was on stop at the start.
>> Yep. Thank you. That's just on that campaign.
>> Correct.
>> Thank you. And how that what's the comparison generally between stage five and the other parts and phases of the campaign? Is that a ramp up or is that a ramping down or where's where's that at?
>> I'm not sure if we've conducted a a
>> I can
>> a review on that. Have you got previous years there? Yeah.
>> Yeah. I'll just >> Um so campaign expenditure by phases and financial years. So um for if you wanted me to sort of go back um from
>> just give me the the phase and the
>> um the from 2020 to 2021 uh we spent um around 9 million y >> um 20 21 to 22 10.4 4 22 to 23 about 10.3 and um sorry
>> sorry I was just going to suggest senator the um the phase phase five over the the years uh including in the previous financial year um which included um the the design and all of the initial research work was a total of 19.6 6 million,
>> right?
>> Um and phase 4 was 23 million. Phase three was 21.7 million. >> And then we combined phase one and two because of the way they were actually conducted and that was that was 30.9 million. So in your your question was was this phase five a ramp up or down? it was approximately 20 million and those other phases were about the same with phase one and two >> 30 million but that was sort of two phases so I mean
>> slightly less
>> yeah I wouldn't have said it was a ramp up or down it was roughly around the same numbers
>> and the difference between what you told me initially is the actual advertising and the other one is
>> that was just in that financial year for 2425 sorry
>> so it combines advertising and creat >> um so which creative agencies were actually used to develop phase 5. Was it the same as any other phases of that campaign or did you go to market?
>> Creative agency is BMF who does the actual advertising for phase five and they have run the creative all the way
>> since since phase one.
>> Correct.
so what sort of u media channels did you use in phase 5 given that there's a fair bit of technology change and usage change of consumers that might be um accessing that information? What sort of changed in that time?
>> Um we still used um the broad media channels that we have used before. So television, cinema, digital video, social media search. We had some really significant media partnerships as well through phase 5 through nine network um NITV and SPS for our first nations and culture and linguistically diverse audiences. Mhm. >> Um I think where we really lent in was with the partnerships and the influences which were strengthened both in phase four and phase five because we know that a lot of our audience um is online well but there is still um >> a strength in the television and above
the line as well. So do you know if B is it BM is that you call
>> BMF are the creative agency that did the advertising but the media placement um is through universal Macan which is the government's master media buying agency and they advise us on the best split for our target audience for that campaign which is really adult influences of young people. So we're not necessarily talking through that campaign to young people directly. Um we're talking to um mainly parents of young people, coaches, teachers, influencers to call out um >> acts of disrespect and talk to them definitely in phase 5 about the hidden trends of disrespect online. And that was um really prevalent in phase five and probably um a new element brought in from phase four because we knew that a lot of those children were being heavily influenced online and looking at things that may not be explicitly to them disrespectful, but teaching them >> um by watching elements of disrespect online that that might be normalized. So really teaching the parents to call that out through the resources and advertising.
>> So in terms of I'm I'm wanting to understand about uh ainal and tourist islander specific content and core content. Can you tell me um did you go separately to uh other creatives to inform what uh BMFR was doing or did BMFR engage any creatives that might fit the definition of called an Ainal tourist islander
>> to inform their work? Um so so ECOM um was the agency that we worked through through Oglev for our first nations and culturally and linguistically sorry our first nations creative um and they uh look at doing a bespoke creative for our first nations audiences. So, it has um a slightly different look and feel and some um videos that were slightly different to the mainstream and those were tested with um First Nations audiences and that would be um adults and influencers of young people in those First Nations communities.
>> And that Etcom was that is that a supply nation company or is that right? Okay. the spend for those two groups. Can you are you able to give me a breakdown? If you don't have it right with you now, you can probably provide that to me. >> This is the actual advertising creative
>> for com. I can come back to you and let you know what that was.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um so can you tell me a little bit about the benchmarking the tracking and evaluation only of phase five? How do you actually register that that's actually had impact as you intended?
just make sure this is the right phase that I'm talking to you about. Um yeah so for phase five it really achieved strong campaign recognition. So 49% um of those who saw the campaign recognized the key messages and takeout and um that's higher than what typically is seen for government campaigns. Um the campaign was considered engaging by the audiences that that saw it and um was reported to encourage those influencers to not only be conscious about the negative online influences but also talk to young people about um the hidden forms of disrespect online. Um so for phase five we had 219 million video views through our media buy and as at 31 December 2025 the campaign website which is respect.goav.au has received more than 77,100 page views. >> and that campaign evaluation was undertaken by the whole of government campaign evaluation supplier Hall and
partners. Yeah. So what's the current status of fage phase five and when is fade phase six set to hit the market?
>> Um so phase five um is completed and we're currently undertaking developmental research for phase six of
the campaign. Do you expect I know there were in earlier phases there were some issues um I think it was co with the delay and the concern about the delay between those two campaigns and the retention of the messages and the the the continuity of those messages. Do you perceive any reason for a delay or is that all on schedule?
>> It's on schedule and I think the with phase six we're really looking to link it to um respectful relationships in schools which is continuing to run. So, I think that um means that we're not losing too much ground hopefully in the time that we're out cuz those messages are still out in schools and we're seeing a lot of that um narrative out in the community in the media.
>> Yeah. Are you able to provide um the findings of the review or are they going to be provided publicly on the website or anything like that? What they need to do with that?
>> The developmental research. Yeah. The
research that informs that it actually had an impact.
>> Oh, the evaluation. >> Evaluation of five. >> Five.
>> Yep.
>> Um, we have yet to release it, but that will be a decision to government. We'll take it to the committee. >> Um, yeah.
>> But what have you done with previous ones? Have they been released on on
>> elements of the previous research have been released publicly for um some phases in toplines which is available on the respect.gov.au
>> so what would determine reasons for not releasing the evaluation report in its entirety? You said elements.
I think normally we just pull out the top lines because it is pretty dense document. So we try and pull out those key metrics which inform the next version of the campaign, next stage of the campaign,
so phase one of the consent can't wait we'll move on to that one campaign that was in the market from the 26th of May 2024 to the 31st of May 2025 can you tell me what the expenditure for that campaign was and that stage of that campaign.
>> Yeah. So in the 20 um 425 uh year for consent can't wait the expenditure was 12,635,410.
Um and what creative agency did you use for that?
>> Uh we're it's in the same village that um we're provided by finance. So it was also BNF.
>> So it's it's them as well. Um and did they follow the same process for their ainal tourist islander and
>> Yes, they did. Yep. So we have um bespoke
>> right
>> created for fa first nations communities.
can you also I know you weren't able to do it earlier. Can you also give me a breakdown of the called specific and the average to own a specific spend in relation?
>> I can definitely bring that back for
include in that the the channels that were used and anything that might have been different about that phase than previous phases.
>> Yeah, I've got the channels. So for um consent can't wait, we that that was the first phase of this campaign um that we've run to date and the channels that we used um were television, digital, social, cinema out of home. We also did a media partnership with Southern Cross um and NITV SPS uh and we did First Nations specific and cultural linguistically diverse um translations and we did translations for cultural ling linguistically diverse audiences in Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. And it was also supported by um public relations activities that were really specific to those groups as well. And in our First Nations communities, we also did um public relations activities specific to to those groups.
>> So was this much more comprehensive with greater reach? Is that fair to say? Cuz you didn't mention all of those things in the last I was asking the early ones.
>> I just have the information to hand it very similar to the us. Yes.
>> Okay. That's okay. Thank you. Um, and when will phase two start?
>> Um, for the consent can't wait. We we've currently got a maintenance burst running for that campaign that will finish up in in March and we're in development. So, uh, this year for the next phase, so phase two of the consent can't wait campaign. Um I think when you discussed um regression, we've also got supporting elements running like the Chanel contest teach us consent um campaign is also in market. So um we hope we won't get too much regression in that space, >> Um from March to when we launch the next phase of the consent campaign.
>> Okay. Senator, can I I'm I have a slightly different I had cultural perspectives was the name of the organization for our call and we gave you a different name before. So, I'm just going to double check and and when we take that other on notice, we'll we'll make sure that we've got the correct one cuz I've just >> it could have been that they were used for a slightly different purpose in the campaign. So, we'll make sure we um provide you with very clear the organization what their role was for each of those um uh those functions for both the stop at the start and consent.
So, Miss Evans, you raised the issue of um uh the risk of regression for any campaign where there's a bit of distance between them. When uh will you know if there has been an effect? And what I'm really asking is when when will you have the review of the effectiveness of that phase of the campaign and therefore any impact?
>> We do have the evaluation for the first phase of the consent campaign. So, um phase one of the consent campaign achieved strong campaign recognition. So 49% of those um that saw the campaign recognized the key takeouts. >> Um and we saw an incre increase in the number of key attitudes and perceptions including an increased understanding that sexual consent can be withdrawn at any time. That's not uh as simple as saying yes or no. And it's part of a suite of skills that are uh really foundational for healthy relationships. And those were really the key elements we were trying to um get across in that campaign. Uh there were 655,000 um visits to the consent.goav.au website. Um 218 million video views and an estimated media reach of 51.5 million uh people in our audience segment. We did an integrated media partnership, Southern Cross, um which supported our overarching media, and we did a four-part branded series hosted by um a podcast, The Briefing, and and that was really successful as well with 7,300 um views across that. Um and I can talk you through our PR if you'd like.
I'm kind of just interested in the general feel for these. Hanging out to help out campaign is another one. Pretty much the same questions. I'm just trying to get a sense of how you're going with those campaigns. If you can kind of I can go through each of those questions again, but I think you probably know them by now.
>> So, the hanging out to help out campaign was on uh ran from the 20th of October 2024 um till the end of June 2025. Um and it was really uh promoting volunteering amongst young people 15 to 18 years and really volunteering as you know is fundamental to strengthening the Australian community and plays a vital role um in improving health and well-being of Australian families across um the country. That uh campaign the developmental research was a slightly different researcher because it sits in a different village. So um Oro research was used for that campaign um and the creative was designed and editorial services were done by TBWA. Uh the PR was run by think HQ and for our culturally and linguistically diverse communities um culture verse ran um that element of the campaign. Um the evaluation highlights so the campaign achieved solid recognition of 37% cut through with the target audience which is sort of in line with government norms. There were um a significant increase in overall perceptions of the benefits of volunteering since the benchmark um and the campaign had positive behavioral impacts on the target audience with a strong proportion. 51% undertaking a campaign related action as a result of seeing that campaign. we don't uh have Yeah,
>> it was a one-off campaign.
>> Yeah. So there's no other phases. It's just Okay. So how do how do you link that campaign? You've said 37% was the um rate at which people recognized that campaign and understood the messages, but the actual success is the increase in volunteering and that age cohort. Can you tell me how that links to um the the success of that campaign? Where do you get your data from for that?
So the um objective of that campaign was really to raise awareness overall of the benefits of volunteering and that's what we're testing. Um whereas the other two campaigns were um really behavior change campaigns that needed to be run long term and therefore for those two campaigns were um measuring are people taking those actions intervening in acts of disrespect or calling it out and understanding consent. So we don't
directly correlate it to >> but that one
>> an increase in volunteering for example.
>> So so that's the one I'm interested in. How do you actually work out what the outcome was from that? Is it is the outcome that you got 37% um connection with the messaging or is the outcome an increase in volunteering as a consequence from that cohort that you actually targeting because the data must be available somewhere.
>> Yeah. So um I think M Evans did read out but um the yeah a strong proportion 51% undertook um undertook a campaign related action as a result of seeing the campaign um and the topsided action was talking to friends or family about volunteering. So um uh they actually saw the campaign responded and actually talked about it with others or took action some other way.
>> Yeah. So what data exists that you're currently not intending to use to actually kind of see if there's a there's an there's a something you could hook on to and go well that was the message there's the outcome. I mean at the moment you've got message was heard and they had a conversation. Um if you have a campaign which is you know don't smoke whatever it might be there'll be a corresponding >> piece of work that says
>> I think we know generally um during co we did see a huge dip in the rate of volunteering. Um those numbers have definitely increased and this campaign was a response to seeing those dip in numbers. So um obviously volunteering goes into multiple sections of the community. Uh you know looking at age care as one example we know there was a significant decrease in age care volunteers and we know if we look into that market now that that has definitely increased since co this campaign was an overarching awareness campaign to um raise awareness of the benefits of volunteering across the board. We have seen an increase but I don't think that could be solely attributed to to this campaign.
>> Okay.
>> We have a program senator in outcome 2 to help improve the rate of volunteering. So there's a you know there's multiple ways in which we're trying to stimulate that.
so are there any other campaigns that you've got in the market at the moment?
>> No.
>> Any other campaigns? That's it.
>> Those are the three.
Um I have some questions probably not for you but uh about could be you Mr. Bhula um about the employee assistance program referrals >> I've got a I've got quite a few question. Hi. Hi. Um so we got a a question reference number on notice um which shows a pretty significant uh escalation in EIP usage within the department particularly in 2025 where referrals in just 9 months exceeded the total for the entire previous year. I'm interested to understand that a little bit more. Um, so total referrals rose from 425 in 2023 to 598 2024 and then went to 750 by September 30th, 2025. Can you tell me what specific internal and external factors contributed to such a significant um number? I think it's about a 76% increase in two years.
Uh yeah, look uh Senator, so um were somewhat concerned with um the previous uh provider and their ability for staff to actually get in contact with them. So we did change provider during that process and um found that there might have been a bit of a backlog in in staff wanting to approach. Um that's obviously difficult to quantify. Um we also were going through a machinery of government change um during uh 2025. Uh and so we do know that staff were unsettled by that. Um it's part and parcel of working in government. But um we do know that there are quite a few people who were um uh making inquiries regarding that during that process. Uh it's I don't have the current quarters figures but um uh we're obviously monitoring that to sort of see how things progress but we do have a culture in the department of of um supporting staff to to make inquiries and to seek uh assistance if they need it. And um that that's kind of probably the biggest things I think I can add. Yeah,
>> I think Senator also I mean we have staff dealing with quite sensitive issues dealing with you know in the red address space with people highly traumatized and so some of the nature of the work that of the department um means that um we need to have a really well functioning and and wellpromoted EAP service within the department >> and um >> you know I think that um so in in some ways people reaching out and and and accessing service is is a good thing for us. And um you know, I'd be concerned if we were seeing elevated levels of work cover claims or other activity in the department. Um but I'm those things are all within reasonable bounds. So okay. Um yeah.
>> So I'm going to kind of go through this so I really understand that because that's a significant amount 750 in 9 months. Did that surpass a thousand in 2025? Can you tell me that? I know you just said you haven't got the quarter figures.
>> I don't have that figure on me. I'm just seeing if my office can can find what the uh the final figure was for 31 December. Senator,
>> thank you. Now um I noticed Mr. Lie, you said that um you know your staff uh have to deal with some sensitive difficult situations at times and um I have a reference to workplace related harassment or bullying. That's all I have. um uh that was cited as a mechanism uh in accepted claims for 23 24 25 and 25 26. Um did you see a change in um the reason for people have you got more detail about the reason for people uh actually seeking EAP? Was there anything that changed in terms of
>> Grant Lock acting chief operating officer I think as Mr. Bombgut uh touched on there's been uh some change in the department outside of that we don't have significant other factors and as uh the secretary spoke to we're not seeing other significant shifts in other metrics. So for example around bullying and harassment uh complaints we're not seeing uh an increase in that in our other data.
So I'm just wanting to understand you mentioned about your change in provider um with 750 EIP referrals but only four accepted compensation claims in 25 26 periods so far. Um is EIP being effectively used as effective as possible as a preventative measure or a staff feeling it because other processes are just too difficult to navigate?
>> I think Senator those take up rates suggest that the service is is effective. staff are wanting to engage with it. They are finding it useful. Um I I would also highlight that it won't only be uh workplace concerns that people might be engaging with the EOP on those services are available if there are other circumstances that they want some support to work through.
>> So you give me an explanation, but have you actually done a bit of a deep dive to understand that or is it just relying
>> We've certainly done some um reviewing of our own data and information. There's nothing there that's raising significant concern that there's something in that EIP kind of access data that raises further action for us.
>> Um have you given any consideration to actually um releasing the full findings of any of those reviews that you've done or is that um or will you continue to release that kind of aggregate data?
>> So certainly continue to release the aggregate data and provide that detail in our annual report. Um and we will continue to monitor it.
>> So we should see in the annual report the full what's happening.
>> Okay. Senator I think I mean the the staff census is also provides insight into issues. So um as as both the other witnesses have said we've had a lot of change in the department with machinery government changes. Uh our staff do not like change and I think I've found that in every department I've worked. people find takes time to adjust to that and um then they tell us that in the staff's survey results and I think there's some indicators there and so we're keeping a very close eye on >> um all all the data that people that we get from these things.
>> When's your next census due? When are you going to run that? May.
>> Yeah, we will get the results probably closer to October, but the the census happens in May.
so I want to um just refer now to performance targets and meeting of those and um my resources come my references come from the annual report. I'm interested to know um the department stated it does not believe there are systemic reasons for missing one-third of those performance targets given that 33% of your performance targets were missed or only partially met across a wide variety of outcomes. How does the department define a systemic reason and what threshold would you determine u that it's not systemic failure?
So Senator um there are a range of reasons why performance targets might not be met. If I um so for example in uh our performance targets in relation to the national redress scheme there are timeliness measures which we are undertaking a range of activities to improve but are not being met that reflects increased demand uh to the scheme. uh but because that performance target was set at a point in time uh it means that in a particular cycle it may not have been met. There will be a range of factors that contribute to why that happens and certainly through the uh performance uh target monitoring process and through our um work including with the NAO in looking at those we consider whether those are um systemic issues or not and and I I think it's reasonable to say that while 33% on on uh the surface looks like uh a reasonable number two have not realized because they are quite diverse in terms of the specific targets that sit across a range of programs and and desired policy outcomes. It's not necessarily um a view that you can take in aggregate because they are such disperate measures.
>> Right. Um I just want to ask about um you mentioned the sensitive nature of the national redress scheme. Can you tell me um what specific factors in relation to that particular scheme led to those some of those performance targets not being met? And have you actually looked at the impact of that on people who are relying on that service?
>> So, so absolutely Senator and I think uh in our last appearance we talked through some of the steps we're taking specifically in redress to look at increasing application time incent throughput. Um and certainly through the work that the ANRO did through their performance audit of the scheme uh last year uh which we also canvased last time. um that that is uh that highlights the work that we need to do to uh increase our performance in in that case recognizing that part of that has been driven by uh some of those applications taking much much longer than they should be to to get an outcome on.
>> Okay. And in a climate of rising living costs um the department also uh was challenged in meeting its targets for financial wellbeing and capability. Can you tell me what that was due to?
for example senator we have a measure advice to ministers um which would inform our kind of capability measures um while that and and we've noted including in the detail in the annual report further work to do to lift our performance in relation to that target and I think the capability review highlighted that there is a a range of work the department needs to do in relation to managing some of our financial cial pressures particularly where we've got uh reductions in revenue for some of our cost recovered activities that we need to be um planning for and managing in relation to the preparation and allocation of budgets across the organization.
>> Thank you. And I think you raised you actually answered a question I had next which is about advice to ministers. So um we'll move on to uh consultancy contractors. I'm interested to understand how many consultancy contracts are active in the and the total expenditure for those contracts. Thank you, Miss Connolly.
So Senator, I think we've got data uh that takes us to 31 December of last year. >> I might just pass to my colleague, Miss Connolly to take you through the detail.
>> Senator The Connelly, chief finance Uh in relation to um consultancy contracts for the year to date 2025 to 26 we have 57 active contracts um total expenditure including GST $7.1 million on those contracts year to date
and all of those contracts are done within the comos procurement guidelines. Do you do any contracting outside of that? are there any um current what you would maybe refer to as non-conultancy contracts that are active?
>> Uh yes, non-consoly contracts there are 403 active as at 31 December. >> Uh total expenditure $128.8
>> Okay. And again they've complied with all those requirements. >> Yes. With that. Okay. are you able to provide a or is there somewhere where you can provide a where I can access a list of the contracts both types of contracts that department
awards? Um so Senator um O tender contains a listing of um all contracts awarded by the department above $10,000 and we also um comply with the various Senate orders in relation to transparency of um our procurement arrangements.
okay. I'm interested in just asking a couple of questions about boards and uh that support your work. Can you tell me how many boards there are in the social services portfolio?
think I've certainly got Have you got certainly got >> a board? >> No. So I I I might just need to take boards on notice, >> Senator.
>> Okay.
>> But I have uh portfolio agency. >> Okay. uh head appointments and and other statutory roles.
>> Okay. >> Just just hold that thought for a minute. I'm interested in asking the department when we've uh talked to the department of health, we tried to understand um the contracts uh that uh the uh department of health actually has with providers where they're even those providers are in currently in administration have the same boards that they were before they went into administration. I'm actually wanting to understand what kind of work you do in terms of due diligence with providers who you're entering into new contracts >> So when I've talked to other departments um in the in the context of say um uh funding to in these particular cases ainal community uh controlled organizations some of them been in administration um and some of them continue to get payment while they're in administration. some of them continue getting paid for quite some time after it's really quite uh public that there are significant issues. I'm just trying to understand if because it seems different departments do a different level of due diligence with >> um uh organizations that they engage with in terms of grants. >> So I'm interested in how you make sure that taxpayers money
>> is protected. So we have a grandson senator and and we do some work on behalf of other departments as well as the department of social services and Miss Paton uh runs that part of the department so she can help you with the right that question.
>> Hi S. >> When we so we deliver a whole lot of grants on 13 on behalf of 13 different agencies. Our funding arrangement managers have relationships with providers and assess the information that comes into us and work closely with those providers. If we find that an organization has something that's not in line with the agreement we've got with them, we work with them to try and fix that arrangement. If we're not able to do that, we'll um escalate the issue to either the relevant policy agency to talk about how do you want to take this forward >> or our audit and assurance team and then we decide how to proceed. and we could pause payments to that organization until we're sure that they'll be able to deliver the services that they're being paid to deliver or work with them or we can cease the grant if it's a serious non-compliance issue.
Can I ask you how many grants um are due to cease by the 30th of June 2026? Can you provide that?
>> Uh in DSS, sorry, just let me get to In DSS there are around 518 grants due to cease on the 30th of June 2026.
>> Okay. I'm just wanting to understand the process for um you advising these organizations that grants are coming to an end um and the alignment with um other grants that might allow them to continue because I get contacted sometimes from organizations that say they're quite surprised that their funds are not coming to an end. Sometimes it appears like it's quite obvious and other times not. I'm just trying to understand where the consistency is here
a grant has a service delivery component to it, we try and make sure that we've notified the organization within oh more than 6 months out from the grant terminating where there's not a service continuity issue. So for example, the volunteer grants where that's a single year grant or research grants >> that's kind of not part of the consideration. It's where there's a service delivery component. Okay. Thank
you. I might put those um questions about the board on notice. It might be an easy way to do that if that's okay.
>> Are you after statuto boards in the portfolio as well as or are you more focused on that grant is
>> I'm after boards in the social services
>> I do think we can help you on that.
>> All right. Do that. >> Second to last one. Okay. Um so I'm Yeah. So it's how many board positions there in the social services portfolio?
>> there's one one statutory advisory committee. That's that's the um economic inclusion advisory committee, >> Uh and then um I think I think just for completeness there's obviously three um agency head positions which are sort of statutory officers. So that's AES Institute of Family Studies, the Domestic Family Sexual Violence Commissioner and the National Commissioner for the Aberiginal and Touristra Islander Children and Young People.
>> Right.
>> And then um there's um uh two non-stutory boards, uh our watch and the Australian National Research Organization for Women's Safety, AMROSE.
I'm interested to know how many of those uh board positions are currently filled by ainal and trust island people.
>> U we've got a gender balance 65% >> right >> I think women and um I did think we had >> we'll come back to you with the other we'll come back on notice with the other
bit >> and and if you can get me to call as well that' be great. Um and the number of vacancies that you currently got on
We'll take that on notice.
>> Thank you. Yes. Thank you. >> Um last set of questions relates to um the separation and redundancy expenses. Can the department provide an itemized breakdown of the 2.1 million reported on page 173 of your annual report? Um I'm interested to understand How much of that 2.1 is attributed to involuntary redundancies, planned redundancies, standard separations, um settlements related to action taken by employees against DSS workers of fair work.
>> I notice Senator I don't think we have any involuntary >> redundancies.
>> No, but uh sorry I don't have that detail with me, Senator. Happy to take >> the majority of that will be leave liabilities in any instance.
Um I might actually give you those questions I think as a package together as a con and thank you chair. Thank you. >> That's the corporate one.
>> We are that completes all the questions in uh the corporate matters uh whole of portfolio area. We will now move to outcome one. >> So I will call officers from the department of social services in relation to social security and invite questions uh from Senator Little. You >> think we're just waiting on officials to
change rooms.
I'll now call officials from the