Page 2664 - Week 09 - Thursday, 9 August 1990
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remember, as Mr Collaery has admitted himself, that the Government opposite is a Liberal Government in which the Liberals are setting the agenda. He and his Residents Rally colleagues are dancing to the Liberal tune. You do not have to be a great student of Australian history to know that Liberals have no sense of social equity or social justice.
The danger is that the spending cuts demanded by the members opposite and their lack of social conscience will mean the real issues, and in Mr Collaery's words, "the need for planning to address the abuse and neglect of our young", may never be seriously looked at by this Government. There are already significant examples, which I shall mention later, of how Mr Collaery's words have not been matched by his Government's action. His failures will not be subject to bipartisan agreement.
Mr Acting Speaker, the Burdekin report is an enlightening document. As the report points out, many people still believe that homeless children have brought it on themselves. In actual fact, the reasons why children leave home are very complex, but it clearly establishes that many children leave because they have no real choice - because of serious abuse, sustained family neglect or complete family breakdown.
The report shows there are strong links between family poverty and youth homelessness and that poverty is linked with drug and alcohol abuse problems, social isolation and domestic violence which may compel a young person to leave home. The report makes it clear that many problems can be overcome with coordinated efforts from all three levels of government in Australia. In this regard the ACT is unique. As Australia's only city-state we have the opportunity to coordinate our actions to ensure success.
Mr Acting Speaker, I now turn to the Alliance Government's response to the Burdekin recommendations. The most obvious thing to any observer is how much the Alliance Government has based its response on the Follett Labor Government's December 1989 response to Burdekin. The Human Rights Commission complimented the Labor Government on the comprehensive approach that it took. I am pleased to see the Alliance Government has almost completely adopted our approach. Let us see if they can turn our words into action.
Of particular interest to me is the action taken to provide homeless youth with medium to long-term accommodation. Although there is obviously a continuing role for crisis youth refuges, any serious attempt to break the back of youth homelessness will have to deal with the problem of "refuge hopping". That is, because of the lack of medium and long-term accommodation, youths are forced to move from one short-term refuge to another, thus adding to the cycle of despair. To tackle these problems the Follett Labor Government announced the following initiatives in its 1989-
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