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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 1008 ..

I suggest that removing this point of confidence, if you like, in building and integrating people back into the community, will have a negative effect. I am sure that is not what the Chief Minister intended. I ask him to again look at all the aspects, and I am sure he is going to tell me that he has. Pushing people into change when they may not be ready for it, given the expert advice that we have received through many good publications that have been put before us, is quite hasty.

There has been much talk about short-term, medium-term and long-term responses. Let us not forget that, in the short term, much has been done by the excellent work of the recovery centre. In the medium term, much is being worked through but there are still people who are struggling in the long term. I will quote again from the good publication put out:

For many people, some effects of the disaster only become obvious after a year or longer.

Destabilising people in this way is perhaps not what the Chief Minister actually intends. Let us say that the opposition has put something up, but the government does not like it, so it won’t even think about taking the concerns on board. These are very real concerns from very real people in the community who contact us. People are also experiencing economic hardship, but these things only start to manifest after a length of time. People have been displaced in the community and many properties have still not been built. Many who have been relocated and are struggling to come to terms with the whole change in their circumstances are still relating to that centre, to that place, to those people. It is a lifeline for them. We really need to think long and hard before removing it.

Many people are still living under and trying to work through stress and duress. They relate to the people at the centre. It is a focal place, a community of its own. A community centre serves a great need in our communities. It is a place where people can congregate and pull together. We see problems with children’s development or behaviour, and of course things like that don’t manifest overnight, in six months or 12 months. We are now perhaps seeing a new phase emerging where children, and indeed adults, who have not necessarily demonstrated any behaviours or have had any need for services, now find themselves in a place where they do. Things do take a while to manifest. I remember talking to a lady who was involved in the Darwin cyclone. I think I have told members about this before. Something that was said in a speech immediately after the bushfires sparked something in her and brought the whole thing back. She realised that, after nine years—this is an extreme case, I grant you—she had not dealt with all the issues in her life. So why are we, in this short space of time, snatching away from people something that they have great faith in?

We also see loss of leisure and recreation and loss of friendship networks. These are warm things that pull a community together. The comments I have had about the people at the recovery centre have been nothing but glowing. They have excelled and gone above and beyond the call of duty. I think also of the people who were involved. To take them immediately away and cut them off all of a sudden from the job that they have been doing so excellently may also be detrimental to them. They have gone through an enormous trauma themselves.

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