Page 3068 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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MR SPEAKER: Order!
MRS DUNNE: Not nearly as miserable as yours, Mr Corbell.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, everybody! Mrs Dunne has the floor.
MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, it is important that the government has moved this motion. It is always the responsibility of elected officials—indeed, for society in general—to be conscious of those who are less fortunate than others. The main aim of Anti-Poverty Week is to strengthen public understanding of the changes and consequences of poverty and the hardship around the world and in Australia and to encourage research, discussion and action to address these problems, including actions by individuals, communities, organisations and governments.
I am glad that these aims have been put in a motion. I am glad in particular that they draw attention to the work of individuals and the role of community organisations in addressing poverty. As members of the Legislative Assembly—this is probably the lot of most legislators—we have the privilege to come into contact with organisations and individuals who put their time and their reputations on the line day after day, making real and substantial differences to the lives of people who live in poverty in a way that the cold hand of government and government instrumentalities can never do.
There is a difference in emphasis between those of us in the Liberal Party and those from the Labor Party in relation to this. Those opposite think that collective action is the answer to almost all these problems, whereas for the most part we believe that the actions of individuals and communities are more effective in addressing the needs of people in need. Programs like the night patrol and the soup kitchen—which is the work of one person, working almost single-handedly—really make the difference on the ground to people in poverty. It is the work of volunteers that support organisations—for instance, “Community House”, an organisation that I am a patron of—that addresses poverty in this town in a way which is most important: addressing really fundamental needs for housing and ensuring that young women in stressful situations can find employment, which is the sure ticket out of poverty.
Whilst trying not to be partisan about this—because this is an important issue and we should not be too partisan about it—we have to draw attention to the gains made by Australia in changing the fundamentals to address poverty more effectively in the last few years. Sometimes I think that there are a lot of people in the ACT and Australia for whom poverty is very much removed. They do not experience it in their own life, they do not come into contact with people who experience it and they find it very hard to comprehend that there are people in poverty in Australia.
I suppose that poverty is relative. In Australia people are really struggling. As Mr Stanhope said, sometimes they find it difficult to provide a school lunch for their children or to ensure that they have a meal for themselves, because of so many demands upon their limited resources. But for people in other countries, especially
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