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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 6 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 1925 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

The Civic and Woden youth centres were assessed, according to the Government's own criteria, as warranting a three-year funding arrangement. That is a fact not in dispute. I should reinforce that. The Government and the Minister's own department assessed the Civic and Woden youth centres as eligible for a three-year funding arrangement. Why was that the case? It was the case because they were seen to provide services of immediate need or of highest priority for young people in the areas where the centres were located.

These are not organisations that are at the fringes. These are not organisations that are providing services that are optional. These are organisations that are providing services that are absolutely essential for young people who, for one reason or another, are unable to spend time at home or who feel alienated from other places in the community but find that the youth centres are a good place to go to interact with other people, to meet and to enjoy each other's company in a safe environment. That is what these youth centres provide. For many other young people, they provide a refuge from the daily traumas of unemployment, homelessness and, unfortunately in many instances, drug abuse.

The Civic and Woden youth centres both provide a wide variety of services to a wide variety of young people. It is not a surprise then that they were a little bit outraged - I think that would be a fair comment - when the original funding offer of three years was changed on the spur of the moment to one year. To underscore just how dramatic this change was, I refer to schedule 2 of the Woden Community Services Woden Youth Centre contract. The contract period is typed in as being from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 2001. In pen, 30 June 2001 has been crossed out and 30 June 1999 has been written in and signed by, I presume, the appropriate officer. That was how rapid and how arbitrary the decision was by this Government to reduce funding arrangements to the Civic and Woden youth centres. The Government did not even have the time, or indeed the decency, to prepare a proper contract. They simply crossed out the bits they did not want and wrote in the bits they needed. That is not a good process by any stretch of the imagination. It also demonstrates quite clearly that this Minister was prepared to treat this centre and the Civic one with little more than contempt. I cannot underscore how serious I think that is.

During the Estimates Committee process, we asked why this had occurred, and it was a very tortuous road we had to go down. We did not get a straight answer from the Minister. All we got was: "It was a decision of the Government". He was not even prepared to say that it was his decision, but he is the Minister for youth affairs. He was not prepared to say, "This was my decision. I am the responsible Minister, and one-year funding, not three, was my decision". He was not prepared to justify it and he was not prepared to say that it was his decision. Well he may not, because we understand that it was not his decision. It was the Chief Minister's.

Mr Moore: That is conjecture.

MR CORBELL: That is not conjecture, Mr Moore. It is not conjecture, because I will trust the word of the Woden Youth Centre and I will trust the word of the Civic Youth Centre far more than I trust the word of this Minister when it comes to this matter.

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