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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Wednesday, 3 March 2004) . . Page.. 629 ..

income equality, homelessness and long-term unemployment, and it brings together into a coherent whole much of what is already underway.

Mr Speaker, Building Our Community: The Canberra Social Plan is an expression of the government’s vision to build a place where all people reach their potential, make a contribution and share the benefits of the community. It is a statement of what we want to become in the future, a framework to guide a generation of decision-makers in the territory. It is a vision of a strong community—one that celebrates the spirit and character of its people, a city which has not only recovered but is moving forward, a city whose people know they belong and, because of that sense of belonging, are generous in their desire to make a contribution.

Mr Speaker, as indicated in the motion moved by Ms MacDonald, the community has been overwhelmingly positive in its response to the release of the government’s social plan, and indeed, other aspects of the Canberra plan. Letters, responses, meetings and representations to me and to my office are fully supportive of all of the initiatives in the plan. They share with the government our view that the plans, as presented, which will be implemented and to which we will commit, will go an enormously long way to ensuring that people in Canberra reach their potential and make a contribution to and share the benefits of this community.

That is the view of the community sector. I met just yesterday with Daniel Stubbs and Robyn Brown from ACTCOSS. They repeated again their willingness and their excitement at the prospect of working with the government in the implementation of the social plan, and indeed the Canberra plan, as an overall, overarching, cohesive, strategic plan for the future of Canberra. That is the view that has been expressed to me by all of the community organisations that the government has worked with over the last two years in the preparation of these plans.

These plans were fully consulted on with the community sector, and they are fully supported by the community sector. The community sector’s response, as I say, reflected just yesterday in my latest meeting with ACTCOSS, is one of full support and a willingness to work with the government. As acknowledged by Robyn Brown and Daniel Stubbs yesterday, this is the first genuine attempt by a government to plan cohesively for Canberra across the board and, in doing so, acknowledge the importance of social planning.

So I commend this motion. It has the broad support of the community. The government is committed to it; we are serious about it. We are doing the hard work through the planning processes; we are doing the strategic planning that is necessary. We are prepared to commit to it, we are open about it, we are consultative about it, we genuinely want the results and we are prepared to commit to them.

MS TUCKER (11.39): I welcome this debate. It is indeed very important that we have further opportunities in the Assembly to talk about this government’s approach to social planning. The ACT Greens, as members are aware, have been calling for a social plan for a number of years and various committees of the Legislative Assembly have also included recommendations to that effect.

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