Page 3591 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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It provides us with the opportunity to celebrate family life, to recognise the importance of families, and to work to support and strengthen families. It presents us with the challenge of openly discussing the changing face of families, of responding to the pressures on families and their needs, and of tackling the issues affecting families today.
The International Year of the Family certainly presents us with opportunities and challenges. It presents us with the opportunity to improve family life and the challenge to apply scarce resources to this task. I welcome the Government initiatives for the International Year of the Family announced in the 1993-94 budget; specifically, the concessions reforms, the establishment of the Child At Risk Unit, the campaign to address violence against women, and the new home loan programs. However, I feel that more could have been done for families.
From the Chief Minister's answer to a question on notice of 16 March, it seems that Government activity has been aimed mainly at coordinating the activities of government agencies; at seeking sponsorship for the International Year of the Family activities; and at PR activities, including repackaging existing Government programs into the family oriented categories set out in the booklet "Focus on ACT Families". This booklet brings together many current Government programs under the following headings: Education of Children, Caring for Children, Families as Carers, Healthy Families, Supporting Families, Informing Families, Transporting Families, Facilities for Families, Recreation for Families, Families and the Environment, and Protecting Families. Mr Humphries referred to this booklet in his remarks.
Madam Speaker, I would like to take two of the programs which are mentioned in this booklet as exemplifying areas in which further expenditure could be warranted in the International Year of the Family. These are the priority schools program and the home and community care program. The priority schools program is now included in the national equity program for schools, or NEPS. Unfortunately, this repackaging has not resulted in increased funding for the priority schools program. The dollars are still the same and are clearly inadequate. What this means for disadvantaged schools in the ACT is that they can receive funding for only three years and then they leave the program to make way for another school in need. Due to limitations in funding, only three or four schools at a time can expect funding under this program.
In its 1993-94 budget submission, the Council of Parents and Citizens Associations called on the Government to introduce the ACT's own priority schools system to address the fact that there are insufficient resources for schools serving communities with high concentrations of socioeconomic disadvantage. Surely, in this Year of the Family, we should be funding all disadvantaged schools in the ACT on the basis of need. While I am talking about the national equity program for schools, I understand that the ACT is missing out on Commonwealth funding for at least one program, namely, the secondary students at risk program. The International Year of the Family provides a perfect opportunity for the Government to gain access to this funding, and I would urge them to do so. (Extension of time granted)
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