Page 2557 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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and are being forced to choose between low payment or no payment. These reforms will not only lead to new health problems in our community but also exacerbate existing ones.
I take the opportunity to applaud those members of the community, our leading community organisations such as St Vincent de Paul, Centacare, Anglicare and the Uniting Church, who now refuse to participate in the commonwealth’s odious new arrangements for enforcing its welfare-to-work changes. It is a real statement when an organisation such as St Vincent de Paul says bluntly and directly to a government, “We are not prepared to work with you in partnership to deliver these services because we believe they are immoral.” That is what St Vincent de Paul now thinks of the federal government’s welfare-to-work changes.
It is perhaps one of the greatest incidents of leadership I have seen from the community sector to have an organisation like St Vincent de Paul, on behalf of the Catholic Church, saying to the federal government that it believes its welfare-to-work policies are immoral and that it cannot work with the federal government to implement them because of that immorality. That is a great sign of leadership by St Vincent de Paul and the Catholic Church, and I think a message to the commonwealth government around what Australians on the street think of this immoral federal government. “Immoral” is the description St Vincent de Paul applies to this particular policy.
It is not surprising that workers who fear for their jobs and fear for the future security of their families suffer mental health problems. The ACT government is doing what it can to limit these effects on our community. We have invested heavily in work-based mental health programs to protect ACT workers from the worst of those impacts. The government funds a range of mental health initiatives aimed at improving mental health in the workplace, as well as providing valuable early intervention services. The OzHelp program provides a quarter of a million dollars to provide life skills and suicide prevention training to the recognised vulnerable group of young, predominately male, apprentices in the construction industry. OzHelp is a proactive outreach model which engages apprentices in their workplaces. The program also provides counselling support to those who seek it. The program has been externally evaluated, with excellent results. It has attracted interest across Australia and is planned to be replicated in other states.
The government provided funding to the suicide education program to the tune of $166,000 in the last financial year. Although focused on suicide prevention, it takes a population health view of its role. Its education program includes many elements which are aimed at developing skills among key workers and organisations. The government also provided $130,000 in this budget for a new initiative in workplace mental health promotion. It will seek interest from organisations outside of government to develop and provide a workplace mental health promotion program to deliver to business, government and other organisations throughout the ACT. The program will work in partnership with the Beyondblue workplace mental health program. Beyondblue provides workplace education for managers and workers in recognising and responding to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses in the workplace.
It is my hope that the ACT government’s investment in workplace mental programs, coupled with the occupational health and safety reforms Mr Barr referred to, can lessen the worst impacts of WorkChoices and indeed of welfare-to-work. However, I fear that
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