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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1469 ..

legal matters, domestic violence and nutrition. They are giving them the support they need with information about Centrelink, or other avenues of support funding, budgeting, drugs and alcohol education, family support, transport, anger management and so on.

There would also be a referral service, and access would be via a youth crisis line between 6 pm and 12 pm Monday to Friday. I have talked about that too and talked with them about my suggestion for a 24-hour Canberra-based crisis line to integrate all the great organisations that we have—20 of them in Canberra at the moment—which are fairly fractured and disparate. Often in a time of crisis people do not know whom to ring, so one number for young people to remember would be helpful.

The service will also develop an initiative to address crime prevention in youth gangs in the ACT by outreaching within the community to support workers from 6 pm to 3 am, Monday to Sunday, together with on-call support outside these hours if needed. They will work in conjunction with the youth crisis line.

It is also worthy of note that the Youth Coalition very strongly supports what these women are trying to achieve. I ask other members to try to help these people. I am speaking in particular to the Treasurer, if he is approached to help, and I ask the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, Ms Gallagher, to look carefully at this proposal too. I think there are some good solutions to problems that face young people today.

The Assembly adjourned at 5.56 pm.

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