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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Wednesday, 3 March 2004) . . Page.. 631 ..

It is certainly important in an area such as this to have a gender audit and analysis because, if you understand the impact of poor housing availability on both men and women and different groups of men and women, clearly that then gives you a much better opportunity to design properly the strategy to deal with accommodation issues and to use resources in the best way properly, because you understand the detail of the need.

I will make a couple of comments on the motion. I have circulated an amendment which deletes the word “overwhelmingly” in the first paragraph so that it will now read “notes the positive community response”—and I agree with the Chief Minister and Ms MacDonald that it has been a positive response on the whole, certainly from ACTCOSS and the constituency of the social sector in the Canberra community. But I am a little concerned about saying “overwhelmingly” because that is a value judgment that I am not prepared to make. I have not been overwhelmed. I have been pleased, though, to see the positive community response, but I have also received concerns and I definitely have concerns about the structure of this social plan, which I have just talked to briefly, in terms of its lack of implementation, detail, monitoring, evaluation and so on.

The actions are very weak in a number of areas. Ms Dundas is going to move an amendment to say that we endorse the goals of this document, which I am very pleased to do. I do feel uncomfortable endorsing this whole document because, as I said, I think it is quite weak in certain aspects. But I think it is a great opportunity to endorse the goals and I commend the government for putting these goals up front in the way that they have. It is not something I have seen done by previous governments. It is a document that the Greens will hold this government and the next government, if it is a Labor government, accountable to. So I think it is a great opportunity to say, “Yes, we accept this as your policy statement and your overall goal in terms of social sustainability and environmental sustainability”—I will talk about that a bit later—“but there needs to be a lot more detail and work done so that we can hold you accountable to these claims which do receive a general positive response from the community.” Why wouldn’t the community be grateful to see a government put forward goals and priorities such as economic opportunity for all Canberrans; respect diversity and human rights; a safe, strong and cohesive community; improved health and wellbeing; lead Australia in education, training and lifelong learning; housing for a future Canberra; and respect and protect the environment. It is hard to disagree.

It is nice to see goals for five to 10 years, although they are very general:

Reduce poverty and exclusion for vulnerable people

Maintain Canberra’s status as the State/Territory with the lowest unemployment rate

Reduce long-term unemployment and the level of unemployment experienced by vulnerable groups towards the ACT average

Provide opportunities for older people to remain in, or return to, the workforce

Identify Canberra as an Australian centre for excellence for turning ideas into income

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