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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 459 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I have not had the opportunity at this stage to take up each of these recommendations with my department. From the perspective that they come into my portfolio responsibilities, I intend to review what is going on and the extent to which we have followed through in the response. Some of these responses are very general - a "Yes, we will do something about it" style of response. I make a commitment to go back and look at them to see where we can be more enthusiastic about our approach. I will begin by asking for a specific briefing from people within the department to explain where we are at and how we are handling these recommendations.

I have had this responsibility for only a very short while, so I have not been able to resolve all the problems just yet. If you can give me another 24 hours we should be right - or maybe a little longer, if you do not mind. I will work on it.

Ms Tucker: Just not another three years.

MR MOORE: Indeed. Ms Tucker interjects, "Perhaps you will need the next three years". The reality is that none of these problems are going to be solved overnight. Because they are going to take a long time, that is all the more reason to get started on them now. To be fair, people have got started on them. What we need is a bit more enthusiasm, a bit more drive, to deal with some of these problems, because the longer it takes us to get started the more young people in particular remain at risk. Of course, none of us want to see that. We genuinely want to build on the amount of work that has been done, to ensure that we get the best possible outcomes for the people of the ACT.

I would thank Ms Tucker for her work on this report, along with the other members of the Social Policy Committee. Clearly, they have worked particularly hard to understand the complexity of the issues before coming out with a series of suggestions on how to move this forward. It has been the approach of this Assembly to take Assembly committees very seriously. I am sure Mr Stefaniak will recall when the Assembly felt that he had not taken seriously enough one of the reports on education. I believe I put forward a motion to send it back for reconsideration. I would expect that that message has come through clearly to the Government. As far as I am concerned, an Assembly committee is something that needs to be taken particularly seriously, whether the work was done in the last Assembly or the Assembly before.

I am happy to be prodded, reminded - publicly or privately - by Ms Tucker about the issues that have been raised and to explain to her what I am doing about them or, if I am not proceeding with them, to elaborate on why it is that I have decided to take a slightly different path. Of course, we all know that some things change and sometimes we will take a slightly different path. But if we are going to do that I think we have to explain exactly why that is the case. I am happy to go through that kind of process with you. Mr Speaker, the report was a major contribution in a very difficult area. It is something that I know my colleagues have taken seriously. I will also take it very seriously.

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