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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1992 ..

retention strategies. Let us talk about retention strategies, the types of strategies which stakeholders and community representatives say must target students at risk for failing to complete their education—strategies that target early high schooling; strategies that target children at risk in primary schools; strategies that reduce disruptions in the classroom and focus more effectively on pastoral care, values and discipline. I am pleased to see the government paying at least some modest attention to values, discipline and pastoral care in its curriculum renewal process.

Meanwhile in the non-government sector we see another round of neglectful funding by this government. The funding allocations for children with difficulties and ICT programs are so paltry as to be nothing but token gestures. Further, having wrecked the ISS program, we are not confident that the government has replaced this with an equitable, fair and effective system of structural funding support for non-government schools. We are keen to investigate this issue further in estimates as well. The government’s claims about funding to non-government schools also appear to be mixed with federal funding allocations, and this we are currently investigating too.

Let me move on to the industrial relations budget. BP 4 states that ACT WorkCover has a five per cent decrease in funding from last year. This has resulted in a huge 62.5 per cent decrease in services through reduced client visits, from 160,000 down to 60,000, and the deletion of the small business OH&S tool kits. The government claims that the reduction in services is due to the removal of a hard copy newsletter and the addition of an electronic newsletter. Will this affect the number of client visits or contacts made? Is the electronic newsletter going to fewer workplaces or clients than the hard copy? How can that reflect a change? For the sake of ACT WorkCover, I certainly hope it does not.

I will speak briefly on emergency services. BP 4 under “Emergency Services Authority” makes reference to the Emergencies Act 2004. I would like to point out that at present there is no such act. The government is being very presumptuous when it talks about the Emergencies Act 2004, which has only been tabled today. The legislation has certainly not been debated and passed by the members of the Legislative Assembly. There is no doubt that we are going to have to pass the legislation as quickly as possible, given that we are now four or five months out from the next fire season. I will talk more about the emergency services budget when I refer to the funding in my electorate of Brindabella.

I also have questions about the youth budget. In BP 4 there is a 13.6 per cent increase in funding support for young people with no increase in the number of students to be supported. Would it not be a priority for the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services to fight for an increase not only in funding support for young people but also in the number of young people being assisted and supported each year? When you look closely at this budget, the practicality of the funding increases is very hard to find. I would like to note that it is a positive result for the multicultural community that $2.591 million of capital works has been funded to build a multicultural centre by June 2005. But much like the Woden police station, we will not be holding our breath until it is built.

I will now speak about the funding in my electorate of Brindabella. The electorate of Brindabella received funding for some positive projects in the 2004-05 budget, but the overall effect will be minimal to the residents of the area. I am pleased to see a number

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