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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 274 ..

which might have been from St Vincent de Paul or the YWCA/YMCA, indicating that over 2,000—

Mr Hargreaves: Point of order, Mr Speaker: I want to ask you to caution the member about reflecting on debate in this chamber. There was a debate on the Lone Fathers issue within the context of this Assembly.

MR STEFANIAK: I am not really doing that, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: It is long-standing rule of the Assembly that we do not reflect on debate.

MR STEFANIAK: I will make sure that I do not.

Mr Smyth: When was the debate?

MR STEFANIAK: A couple of years ago.

I recall figures indicating that about 2,000 men could not be accommodated in crisis services in the course of the year. Those figures are close to two years old now. That in itself is very worrying. Mrs Burke’s motion, and referral to the committee, would take into account crucial issues like that. She said in the debate that all the men here are fathers. The vast majority of adult men in our community are fathers. Close to 50 per cent or so of the community is male, and 50 per cent are female. There are some very real issues—existing and emerging problems—that we as legislators need to look at so that we can come up with solutions.

The terms of reference in Mrs Burke’s motion are wide. As she says, her terms of reference are similar to the South Australian terms of reference. However, men and fathers in the ACT are certainly facing many difficulties in the economic area, the social area, the legal area, the health area, the financial area and the maintenance of the family unit, or otherwise. There are real concerns in relation to just what is available to support them, what areas of government support can be improved, what areas of non-government support can perhaps be improved and, especially, what we, as a community and an Assembly, can do for them in times of crisis that we are not doing very well now and that we should be doing.

It is terribly important that this issue is looked at properly by a committee. We have not really done that in the past to any great extent. If Mr Hargreaves has concerns about the breadth of Mrs Burke’s motion, I am sure she would be amenable if you came up with some amendments that might satisfy some of your concerns. I hope that those in the Assembly do not duckshove this issue or regard it as too hard and not address it. If we do that, we would be failing in our responsibilities to a very large proportion of the Canberra population. We would be failing in our duty to look at ongoing and emerging problems that need to be addressed in our community.

It is essential that they are addressed for the wellbeing of our community. It is essential that, as a result of an inquiry such as this, we come up with some good strategies that can assist in minimising the difficulties and problems that are experienced by fathers, making the lot of fathers in our community a lot easier than it is at present.

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