Page 2024 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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The Government has taken a range of actions in relation to people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. I have already referred to the discrimination legislation. We are also developing a languages policy, in consultation with the community groups. We have a multicultural liaison officer appointed in the Chief Minister's Department. She is a very important liaison point on all issues affecting our own ethnic community.
Madam Speaker, we have also promoted child-care in the ACT, including the provision of two employer supported child-care centres for our own workers. This is very important in social justice terms. I have the Women's Consultative Council looking at the impact of the ILO on workers with family responsibilities. The ACT Government Service response has just been provided on that convention, for inclusion in the Commonwealth's implementation report on ILO Convention 156.
We have continued some of the good work that was started under Mr Kaine in the area of seniors in the ACT, in particular the seniors card. I give Mr Kaine credit for that initiative. We have taken it further, and have made it much more widely available and for a greater range of services. Madam Speaker, we have also taken a number of actions in relation to youth, in particular, of course, continuing with my Youth Consultative Council. Again these are actions which I am very proud of and which I would be happy to detail for any member who is interested.
Madam Speaker, I am out of time. I would simply like to say that Mr Kaine, if he is unable to understand Labor's agenda, has simply not been listening. I recommend that he sit in this chamber, which he has not done, and listen. If he wants to raise this matter, he should be here to listen to what is said.
MRS CARNELL (3.57): Madam Speaker, I wonder whether the 40 per cent of Canberrans who voted for the Labor Party in the last election had any idea of the real social agenda of their chosen party? During the campaign Canberrans heard how the Follett Labor Government would address some of the problems inherent in the ACT administration. Canberrans were promised an independent complaints unit, a clinical school, a hospice, no more "pink bits", and a host of other things. How many of these promises have been addressed by this Assembly? What this Assembly has seen is a totally different agenda. It bears no resemblance to what Labor was talking about at the time of the election.
Did ACT residents know, when they put a "1" next to Ms Follett's name, that they were really voting for a freestanding abortion clinic, legalised brothels, decriminalised cannabis, the end of traditional circuses for ACT children, and continuing Canberra as the capital of porn? There was certainly no community consultation for this agenda. The lack of community consultation, or for that matter community approval, is obvious. The Government has never been open about what its real social priorities are. The strategy has been to introduce social change by coup d'etat. In other words, do not let the people know until the last minute, so as to minimise the chance for debate. The prime examples are the abortion issue and the circus animals fiasco.
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, on a point of order: Standing order 52 says that a member may not reflect upon any vote of the Assembly. I believe that Mrs Carnell is reflecting upon votes on matters of substance brought to this Assembly, and, in the case of abortion, one which she supported.
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