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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3638 ..

MRS BURKE (continuing):

young people with relationships. The only thing is that it does not involve the parents-and your suggestion does. It goes into many areas, such as parents breaking up, handling family conflicts when home is tough, fighting with friends, helping a friend, and best of friends. You might want to have a look at that website-it is www.kids.nsw.gov.au.

That is very one-sided-and it is really for the child to do. What I love about this idea is that it engages the whole of the family. It may be that you broaden it to all of the family, including siblings. It may be that other members of the family are being impacted by one member of the family, and that everybody needs to be engaged in that process. I suggest we broaden that a little to say "whole of the family". We do not have to be as prescriptive as that.

Young people find themselves in unsafe circumstances, for many reasons. We should be equipping young people with the tools to deal with issues such as those on the website-the Arcade. We are hoping to model our trial on that. As I said, whilst the website is helpful for the young person, it does not, like the proposal suggested by Mrs Cross, directly involve the parents.

I think this motion is worthy of our consideration and, at the very least, a trial. I call on the government to strongly look towards working with Mrs Cross, to see if it can be implemented. I therefore have no problem in supporting this motion.

MRS CROSS (4.39): I want to thank members for their support, not only for the substantive motion but also for Ms Gallagher's amendment, which I also support. The minister has been kind enough to invite me to a discussion with the minister's youth council, which I have accepted. I believe that will go some way towards looking at the possibility of introducing a trial in the ACT.

Initiatives and ideas cannot be all things to all people, but they are the beginnings. I was extremely impressed with what I saw Warringah Council doing. I believe it will help to address a number of our problems, in looking at communication issues, reducing the fear factor and introducing a safety net. It is a harm minimisation approach-and that can only ever be a good thing.

Amendments agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Rail services between Canberra and Sydney

Mr Pratt , pursuant to standing order 127 and at the request of Mrs Dunne , fixed a later hour for the moving of the motion.

Concession scheme on property rates for people on low incomes

MS DUNDAS (4.43): I move:

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