Page 318 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 1990
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help, when they should be seeking to alleviate that suffering and hardship. These guidelines need to be looked at quickly to rule out those flaws before more damage is done. If Mr Collaery would just sit still for a minute and listen he would probably comprehend this issue a little more closely rather than waiting till the transcript comes out and studying it there. It needs to be dealt with urgently, Bernard.
The community has made its concerns known. There have been newspaper articles, TV stories and a public meeting to bring to our attention the problems of the less well-off in our society. These problems relate not only to the fact that these people are underprivileged, but to the fact that they cannot get access to the services available and are unable to fight their way out of their disadvantaged positions. They are the weak in society. In a community which is for the most part well-off and well-educated, those without wealth, without income, without education find themselves without a voice, without services and excluded not only from the benefits of this society but even from basic comforts. What we need is a commitment from the Government to address these issues quickly.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (4.16): I am quite impressed that Labor is now suddenly imbued with urgency in this matter. During the several months that they were in government they clearly saw no urgency at all or the strategy of which they speak would already be in place.
Mr Berry: Why do you not put the Bible away and just get on with the job?
MR KAINE: You raised the subject and it is worthwhile noting that you raise it as a matter of urgency only after there is a new Government. You had seven months to do something about it and you did nothing, which is a marked contrast to the Alliance Government which is firmly committed to a socially responsible approach to our citizens, to the services that we provide and our budget priorities. Of course, Mr Berry avoided actually talking about a strategy. He talked about a number of issues which in many ways are not even related, but my colleagues will take those up and address each one specifically in terms of what this Government intends to do even though the Government that preceded us did not see any urgency about any one of them.
In terms of social programs the Alliance Government acknowledges the good work done in Victoria and South Australia and by Mr Mike Salvaris, who provided good advice and guidance to the previous Labor Government in the ACT, but they did not seem to take any notice of it. The work that we have been doing over the last three months has focused on taking the frameworks previously developed and developing our own social equity strategy. I emphasise that equity and justice are not synonymous. Justice is very often just but quite often inequitable. It is our
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