Page 1533 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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programs, including income support, accommodation, personal support, education, training, employment, health and legal services, which will facilitate their transition to independence and to mainstream services; sixthly, and finally, services provided to young people should be accessible, relevant and appropriate to their needs, with particular reference to gender, disability and culture.
Mr Speaker, we are going beyond the rhetoric and are implementing these principles in both programs and policy. Doing so has meant some change and refocusing in existing or proposed service delivery. The response tabled today gives the whole picture of our action to date, and I will not detail this now. However, we know that, when the inquiry reconvened in December last year to hear governments reporting back, harsh comment was made to the States about their welfare responsibilities. I was present when Mr Burdekin repeated some of those comments this week. This is one of our key areas for action. The tasks involved are major. We recognise this as a sensitive area and we accept the challenge of reform, along with the inherent difficulties.
Mr Speaker, there is a directional change away from institutional care - in which the ACT, compared with other States, had a disproportionate emphasis - towards a range of options, including family placements and peer family support. The Callaghan report on the operations of the ACT Community Welfare Branch is likely to provide dramatic proof of the need for change in the delivery of services. We must reaffirm our commitment to the delivery of a high standard of appropriate welfare service. Extensive staff training, program monitoring and evaluation are essential to this process.
We will also develop a multifaceted strategy to assist families and young people to reconcile differences, where possible, and to access help when facing crisis or breakdown. The strategy will include peer programs in conflict resolution, access to mediation and counselling targeted to the special needs of adolescents and their families, training workshops across government and the community, and an information-publicity component. Families and adolescents must be encouraged to access help before problems have escalated.
Linked to this strategy, Mr Speaker, will be parenting programs targeting parents of adolescents and also targeting very young parents who may be adolescents themselves. So that programs are easily accessible, efforts will be made to offer them in locations such as the workplace and in housing developments.
The problems of violence and sexual abuse in the family will be considered carefully in this context. Our policies and practices must always acknowledge that those young people experiencing violence or sexual abuse have the right to be safe, and must not be encouraged or forced to remain
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