Page 2706 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 21 November 1989
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that Mr Kaine is requesting and that I will get that detail and make it available.
Parents Without Partners
MR DUBY: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to Mr Berry, Minister for Community Services and Health, and it is in relation to the organisation called Parents Without Partners. Given that the Parents Without Partners organisation receives assistance from State governments in every State of Australia but not the ACT and given that during the campaign for election to this place Mr Berry attended a meeting in February at the PWP centre in Dickson where commitments were given by all political parties here present that PWP and the Lone Fathers Association would receive funding from the Government, can he please tell me when that funding will eventuate?
MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Duby, for the question. The Labor team in the lead-up to the election was consistent in its approach to this sort of funding, that it was a competitive funding arrangement where interested parties would make application. From the Labor team's position, we made it clear that these organisations would be provided with funding on the basis of the service that they provide to the community. It is, as I have said, a competitive area of funding, and some announcements have been made in relation to it by the Government. Applications were called for by an advertisement in the Canberra Times on 4, 7, 11 and 14 October. They were to close on 31 October. My department also wrote to all currently funded services advising them of the process. I expect Parents Without Partners would have been contacted in that way, or at least provided with access by virtue of the advertisements in the newspaper.
As announced in the budget, the Government is to introduce recurrent triennial funding for organisations which provide essential or complementary services. This will help them plan services over a much longer period than they have already been able to. As these organisations will not be required to apply for their base funding every year, community reaction to this decision has been favourable.
The current round of applications is for expansion of existing services and annually funded services. Annually funded services may also apply for recurrent funding. The Government regrets the tightness of the application timetable and will help organisations to meet it wherever practicable. We aim to have decisions on this round of applications announced by 31 December. But if Parents Without Partners have made an application, they will be considered amongst all of those applicants and they will be mentioned in the announcements in December.
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