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Canberra Times . . Page.. 492 ..

Mr Berry: Who will give me $5? $5? $5? I have $10 over here.

MR HIRD: I know that you are interested; I can hear you. Mr Speaker, I can hear him. The Department of Social Security will lose 900 positions. Every time that you get rid of one of these people, we in the private sector suffer. Well may you laugh about that; but we are concerned about the small operators. The Community and Public Sector Union bosses also predict 4,000 job losses. That is in the Canberra Times of today. It has just been brought to my attention by my good friend. This is an indication of how the Federal Government bags the ACT public service and the ACT.

I heard Mr Berry talk about enthusiasm. I have to put that to bed because there was no enthusiasm for the Commonwealth’s budget. There has been enthusiasm from the business sector since the Carnell Government took the treasury bench. I know, as you know, Mr Speaker, that the Salvation Army appeal day is coming up very shortly. They say, “Thank God for the Salvos”. Private enterprise is saying, “Thank God for the Liberal Government”.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The time for the discussion has expired.

CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH SERVICES BUREAU – ESTABLISHMENT

Ministerial Statement

Debate resumed from 3 May 1995, on motion by Mr Stefaniak:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

MS McRAE (4.41): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to Mr Stefaniak's statement on the creation of the Children's and Youth Services Bureau. This, Mr Stefaniak claims, is the fulfilment of an election promise; but all it serves to do is demonstrate how half-baked the promises were. He said that, in this new arrangement, the important relationship between services for children and young people and the Government's responsibility for education and families is given special recognition. On the face of it, that is just fine. But what about family services? What about the people who deal day to day with families and children in crisis situations; who deal with carers, foster parents and children who are wards of the state? We look at the administrative arrangements orders, and where are they? Not in the Children's and Youth Services Bureau, where they care about children and families; no, not at all. Where are they? They are with Housing.

Perhaps we can applaud the bringing together of eight different service organisations within government. It looks good until you look and see that there is no clear and definitive policy about the relationship to family services. The Minister says that having all services integrated in the new bureau will do away with overlapping and duplication but makes no mention of how the Children's and Youth Services Bureau will interact with and respond to the Housing and Family Services Bureau. There is no notion at all of how that duplication and overlapping are going to occur or not occur.

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