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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2240 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

In relation to the $600,000 for substitute care, we also need to continue to see whether this is sufficient. But one of the issues I do have with substitute care - and there appeared to be little in the budget on it - is that there seems to be a failure to recognise the importance of values in this process. If we are providing substitute care for children who require it, what are we providing for the families where these children come from? How are we helping those families manage the obvious difficulties they must have if they need alternative care for their children? I would like to see some attention given to family support within our community.

If you look at some of the knocks that families have had to bear recently, they include: Unemployment in the ACT has increased quite considerably; there have been redundancies by the Commonwealth and ACT governments, and this affects families, how they think about themselves and how they function; there have been changes by the Federal Government to child-care costs; there are increasing costs in a number of areas that also affect families. The changes to the HECS payments affect those families with older children who wish to participate in higher education. It affects also women and men who wish to take on further education to change their job and career paths. We had the announcement this week, about discontinuing payment of the dole to unemployed young people who are 15 and 16 years old. Then there is the fact that families would have to take a lot of responsibility for young people over the age of 17 as well, if these people are not in employment, training or schooling at this time.

These changes will also put a lot of pressure on families in which young people are not in school or in employment. There are a number of reasons quite often why they are not in training or schooling. The additional pressure on families means that these families will need support at this time. I understand that a number of young people who are trying to bypass the system have been trying to enrol in CIT courses. The problem is, of course, that they need money to be able to do this. In some cases, there are no places left in the areas in which they might wish to enrol. This puts additional pressure on families within the ACT. I would like to see more recognition of the need for family support than there appears to be in this budget.

If we consider Youth Services as well, one of the things that have happened in the past three to four years is the decrease in funding for youth centres. There seems to have been a failure to recognise increasing costs, and we need to address that. On the one hand, youth have been affected by a number of changes coming through Commonwealth Government policies. They need additional recognition through ACT policies to support them as they try to manage the new processes that are around.

When I asked the Minister during the Estimates Committee process whether he was concerned about the Ombudsman's report on police and youth, I was surprised that he had not taken account of it. It is not just a police matter; it is also a youth matter. I realise there have been various responses to this Ombudsman's report, but it must be recognised that there must have been some basis for the original examination and investigation. It is very disappointing that the Minister for Children's and Youth Services is not concerned about the relationship between young people in the ACT and the police.

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