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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2855 ..

During the estimates hearings there was an interesting conversation about the establishment of the child and family centres in Gungahlin and how they would be linked to work that was already funded in previous budgets to provide family support in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong. It is disappointing that the head of the department whose role it is to see the overall implementation of the Canberra social plan was not able to provide us with an answer in relation to how those different initiatives will be co-ordinated. More work is needed to ensure that the different departments are able to work together to provide greater co-ordination so we do not have ongoing double-ups.

Mr Stefaniak has already talked extensively on the sports portfolio but it was interesting to note that sport and recreation will be focussing on children’s health and addressing children’s obesity. Also, health is looking at this through HealthPACT, as is the Department of Education and Training. A number of different initiatives in this budget are targeted at children’s health and specifically at obesity. As well, the federal government’s initiative is being announced today. There needs to be greater co-ordination to ensure that we are not doubling up and that we are getting the best from our resources. We all would like a healthy outcome for children and young people in the ACT.

I also have significant concerns in relation to the work done in preparing the women’s budget statement, which comes under the Office of Women. Those concerns were explored through the estimates process as well. It was quite disappointing that the first women’s budget statement for this government was done on a very subjective basis, as the Office of Women indicated. There were a lot of recommendations, and a lot of people who participated in the Status Of Women Committee inquiry would have been more than willing to provide advice and support in relation to gender analysis and hard gender auditing that we were looking for in the ACT budget.

In its submission to the Estimates Committee, Toora said that the women’s budget statement needed to be underpinned by hard data and gender auditing to ensure that it is meaningful in its analysis of the progress of effectively addressing women’s issues in the ACT. Toora went on to say that the women’s budget statement in its current form is almost insulting to women when it refers to things such as waste recycling and collection and urban tree safety as issues that directly benefit women. It was incredibly disappointing that 87.7 per cent of all initiatives in this budget were seen to be benefiting women, when the other 13.3 per cent that were not considered to benefit women clearly included initiatives that fitted the process for inclusion in that 87.7 per cent.

The process and the discussion about the women’s budget statement have shown that more work needs to be done if we are seriously going to provide support, and analyse that support, for women in the ACT. That being said, I welcome the new initiatives under the Office of Women, especially the women’s grant program. It is great to see that that recommendation of the status of women inquiry is being implemented now and that we will be able to support women’s organisations to take on projects and work specifically to help the status of women in the territory.

Some concerns are being raised about what is happening to the digital divide program. It was initially a three-year program. Although $225,000 remains unspent from last year, it does not appear that any of this money is being rolled over to support tutors and allow

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