Page 1877 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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Mr Speaker, let me now turn to the axing of the youth outreach worker program. It is ironic that when the Minister for Housing and Community Services, Bernard Collaery, was briefed on his paper Beyond the Burdekin Report he found out that his colleague Mr Duby had axed the youth outreach worker program without consulting him. Mr Collaery, with his usual hypocrisy and "I am actually a small 'l' liberal" stance, wanted to help the youth of the ACT, but he did not have what it took to stand up to Mr Duby and demand that the youth outreach worker program be retained. He simply let it slip. He may have been red faced, he may have been angry, but he took no action.
The other interesting story about axing the youth outreach worker program is that the ministerial advisory council on employment asked Mr Duby to fully fund this program because it believed it was necessary for it to go ahead to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment in the ACT. Mr Duby responded by saying that, as the program was not under way, he had decided not to fund it. Of course, this was untrue. There was already one officer working full-time on the program, who had been recruited in September last year, and other officers had been recruited and were ready to start work. Mr Duby misled the advisory council and, in making his decision to axe the program, failed to consult with his ministerial colleague. But what is worse is that when Mr Duby was approached by Mr Collaery over this matter Mr Duby was unaware that the youth outreach worker program was part of his portfolio. Obviously Mr Duby makes decisions without knowing what he is doing.
Mr Speaker, finally I would like to address the subject of housing. I must congratulate the Government on the Labor initiative of agreeing to sign the Commonwealth-State housing agreement. This is a very important agreement and will give the ACT access to money for public housing. It has also reduced some of my concern that public housing was to be sold off and the money that would be raised would be returned to the ACT Treasury. This opinion was being seriously considered by the Chief Minister when he came to power. Fortunately, the Commonwealth-State housing agreement will prevent this happening.
However, the Commonwealth-State housing agreement does not prevent the sale of housing, provided that the money is returned to public housing. This, of course, worries me because I understand there are houses to be sold off, obviously in the inner area where they are worth more money. Thus, public housing is going to be sent out to the backblocks of Canberra where there will not be any decent bus services. God help the people who have to live in them there!
It is quite possible that the Government would have sold off Northbourne Flats. To this day I seriously believe that the Minister for Housing, Mr Collaery, was thinking of the sale of those flats. It is only because the residents
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