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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 211 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Hi my name is Emily. I am 11 years old. Jim, Barry and Lui the staff are very nice to me and my family. In my family is Leon (my dad), Tyler (my uncle) and my brother and me. This house is excellent. Why should this house be shut down.

Mr Speaker, I think this is a matter that quite clearly should go to the committee. The committee is probably ideally situated to investigate it. I think when you have some of the conflicting claims and facts on matters that I have put before the Assembly, justice and indeed proper process would be best served by a committee looking at this. I think it would be wrong in all the circumstances to proceed now to a tender, given the problems that have been raised and the great differences in terms of fact. I think that would be the most appropriate course to take. I commend the motion to the Assembly.

It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 77.

Ordered that the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I referred to comments on the evaluation by the MAACS people and said I would make that available. I seek leave to table this document as well as some support letters, including the one I read out, which have been sent to Mr Corbell.

Leave granted.

MR STEFANIAK: I present the following papers:

MR CORBELL (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.41): Mr Speaker, I need to make very clear at the outset that a service for men, homeless men and their accompanying children, will remain in the ACT. There will be a service provided. Whether or not it is provided by the Lone Fathers Association is another matter, and that is what a tender process is about. The bottom line here is that this government is committed to ensuring that there is a service provided to address the needs of men in that particular situation.

What I find extraordinary, Mr Speaker, is that Mr Stefaniak should, through this motion today, seek to stop the process of seeking tenders to operate a men's and children's crisis accommodation service; that he should move this motion, calling on the Assembly to halt a process which is correct and which is required by law. His motion seeks to intervene in a proper tender process that is being undertaken to ascertain the best possible way to provide this service-a men's and children's crisis accommodation

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