Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4134 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

It is a serious matter to have it in your head that the sale of assets is okay to fund recurrent expenditure. It is a dead-end street. That you have not woken up to the fact probably explains the modus operandi of the Liberal Party. It is all about living in an economy and not having much concern for the community and the society which we are supposed to be building, not tearing apart.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Proposed expenditure - Non-Government Schooling, $69,588,000 - agreed to.

Proposed expenditure - Training, $9,184,000 - agreed to.

Proposed expenditure - Children's, Family and Youth Services, $57,947,000

MS REILLY (3.16 am): Before we agree to the actual expenditure I would like to look at a few elements of this part of the budget. As with some other areas of the budget, there is a considerable lack of information about what is going to happen. There seems to be very little increase from last year's budget, even though an increase in substitute care was announced and there will be further expenditure to prepare for mandatory reporting. It will be interesting to see how they both develop through this year. Obviously, these are two crucial issues in the area of protection of children.

It is quite heartening to see that the Treasurer's Advance has $13.6m in it. This is the pool which we will be looking to for any additional expenditure on mandatory reporting. Its introduction is so important that we have to take great care about how we progress in that direction. For a number of reasons, it has taken a long time to get off the ground in the ACT, and it is crucial that it be done well. You only have to look at some of the problems that have arisen in Victoria, where they removed money from looking after and protecting children. I am quite sure that we do not want to see anything similar in the ACT. We are going to have to watch our expenditure in that area.

A surprising part of this budget is the provision for youth. We have one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the whole of Australia, but the draft youth strategy that is circulating at the moment leaves out any mention of training and employment. We do not seem to have any increases in expenditure in this vital area. If young people do not have the opportunity either to get employment or to do other things, it leads to trouble. This is an area that should be looked at.

Another area of concern is juvenile justice. The electric fence was mentioned the other day. Of course, you cannot find it in the budget, but there is going to be expenditure on that. When I raised this issue the other day the Minister said, "What about the education program?". This education program is a fairly recent innovation. Detainees go outside Quamby to attend various educational and other programs in the community and they go back at night. Later in the night they go over the fence. If they have the opportunity to walk away, it makes you wonder why they do not and why they need the extra challenge of going over the fence that is currently there and in the future being stung a bit as they go over an electric fence. You have to ask what is

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .