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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Wednesday, 3 March 2004) . . Page.. 619 ..

makes no apology for restating in the social plan the many commitments we have already made, such as the $33 million for public and community housing announced late last year.

To keep us up to the mark, the social plan has set five specific targets for the next decade. Those targets are:

• to reduce long-term unemployment;

• to decrease income inequality;

• to reduce primary homelessness;

• to increase the share of young people successfully achieving a year 12 certificate or equivalent in vocational education; and

• to increase the share of adults with a post-school qualification.

All of these targets, of course, seem incredibly worthy but I would like to speak about the last one in particular because, as most people in this place would know, education and training is one of my key interests. The ACT is the most highly educated community in the country and Canberrans continue to have the highest levels of education attainment in Australia. More than 65 per cent of the population aged 25 to 64 years had a post-school qualification in 2003 and 36 per cent of Canberrans in that age group had a bachelor’s degree or higher. The Stanhope Labor government recognises the benefits of lifelong learning in strengthening a community’s social fabric and wellbeing as well as its economic capabilities.

The government has highlighted its commitment to lifelong learning through its support of the adult and community education program. Adult and community education providers are important avenues by which all members of the community can engage in informal learning. The ACE program provides for training to be customised to meet the needs of community members who have difficulty in accessing more formal training.

In some cases, the ACE learning experience is the first since the person left school and may also lead to formal accredited vocational training. Of course, Mr Speaker, I highly endorse that because, as I have said many times, there are many people in our community who have not undertaken any formal training since the day they walked out of the high school gates 20 or 30 years ago. It can be a fairly intimidating thing, especially if you have had a bad experience in your schooling, to undertake any further formal training. People using the ACE program are encouraged to want to undertake more formal training, and that can only be a good thing.

Enhancing the opportunities for more people to engage in ACE learning experiences, as I said, strengthens the “connections” between lifelong learning, health and wellbeing benefits. The government will continue to support the ACE program as a means of promoting life-long learning and the benefits of skill acquisition.

These goals are not a wish list—they are specific targets with specific numbers behind them. With such a comprehensive set of measures, is it any wonder that Building Our Community: The Canberra Social Plan has been received with such overwhelming support.

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