Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1438 ..

MRS BURKE (3.58): I rise to say that the Liberal opposition will be supporting this motion on the notice paper. I am slightly aghast at some of the comments that Mr Wood has made. To insinuate that people like Ms Dundas and I are not in touch with the community is a downright insult, quite frankly.

Mr Wood: I didn’t say that.

MRS BURKE: No, you said, “Don’t you know what’s going on out there?”

Mr Wood: I said you do not know what we are doing all the time.

MRS BURKE: Well, it is the other way around, I think, Mr Wood, because if you were at the meeting we were at this morning, then you would have known from the stakeholders who were at that meeting that there are still major service gaps.

On 10 March a workshop was conducted to discuss such issues. Service gaps for young people were identified and a new model was proposed. There was a follow-up meeting today. This was held by the youth information referral resource service, at which Ms Dundas was present as well. The youth information referral resource service has actually put in a submission, but I am not sure, from listening to Mr Wood’s comments, if they are going to be too late. But, obviously, they have done a lot of consulting with the community, a lot of talking to people out there.

I think it is rather a shame that Mr Wood protesteth too much. Indeed, I would see it more that he is probably concerned that Ms Dundas has stolen his thunder. So if it is in line or if there are some things that can work, why should Ms Dundas have to remove her motion from the notice paper, Mr Wood? Why can’t you, for a change, start working with other people in this place for good and positive outcomes? I ask you often enough. I have fairly given up now, but that is your choice.

Ms Dundas raised the issue of Civic, saying that it was the focal point of activities for many young people. Indeed, the instigators of the youth information referral resource service, Tanya Keed and Christine Darcy, actually run a very impromptu service that picks up and takes young people home early in the morning. Last weekend it was seven young people. They get rung up at all hours of the morning because, for reasons which Mr Wood himself said and which I will allude to in a minute, they were not able to go home.

Ms Dundas referred to doing a crime to get a roof over their head, virtually; people were feeling that they were somehow safe in Quamby or the Belconnen Remand Centre, wherever it might be. “If I’m bad at least I get a roof over my head.” That is a dreadful culture. There are obviously needs in the community and that is why it is taking so long for these reviews, strategies and papers to come down; and there is no action there.

Mr Wood talks about money being put in. We hear the rhetoric about $13 million, the number bandied around so many times. Where are the houses? Where are the roofs? You said that you were going to do better than the Liberal government.

Mr Wood: It’s happening out there.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .