Page 1460 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE PROGRAM
Ministerial Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 1 June 1989, on motion by Mr Berry:
That the Assembly takes note of the following paper:
Home and Community Care program - Ministerial statement, 1 June 1989.
MR MOORE (8.59): Mr Speaker, in looking at the Minister's statement on the home and community care program in the ACT, I say at the outset of this debate that I have no intention whatsoever of making members of the community feel uncomfortable by debating the distribution of the money to the particular people as announced by Mr Berry in this paper. Rather, it behoves us to look at the method of distributing the money from programs like HACC, and perhaps we can also apply the same sorts of methods to programs like the community development fund. At present, members of the community get their funding through a submission based system. In fact, what this Assembly ought to be looking at is ensuring that the money is distributed much more on a needs basis. Those of us - and I think it applies to most people - who have been involved with the community and with community applications for some years recognise that those with the skills of writing submissions have a particular advantage over those who do not have those skills.
Mr Wood: There are also skills in assessing.
MR MOORE: That is why we need to look at the possibility of running a different system. We need to establish a set of guidelines for establishing priorities and for alleviating disproportionate funding where it has occurred. To a certain extent, no matter what system we use, there will always be some accusation of disproportionate funding. But, whatever the system, we should always be attempting to improve the system.
I think that our current systems assume the needs of groups and do not tend to identify the collective needs of those groups. The funding of those groups and their application is usually considered in isolation and without consultation. I suggest that one method of looking at needs based funding is to use a summit based decision. One method of doing that is to allow collective groups who have similar orientation to have a greater impact on funding and resource allocations.
The way this could be done is to allocate to particular groups a particular sum of money that is divided at the governmental level and then to have a summit for those groups so that they can debate the amount of funding. The role of the public service is to facilitate that debate and that information. It is very important for us to look at
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .