Page 3470 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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The Human Rights Commission Act 2005, which became operational in November 2006, has been a key plank in building our community. The commission works across all levels of government to protect the rights of each and every member of our community. The ACT was, as we know, the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce a Bill of Rights, and the Human Rights Commission is at the forefront of our endeavours to ensure these rights are acknowledged and respected.
We are fortunate in the ACT that many in our community are able to take for granted the ready access to safe and affordable accommodation. Yet, for some, it is a very real and hard struggle. We do rate well on external measures of housing affordability, but this is in no small part due to our higher than average household incomes. My government does not want people to struggle to attain basic accommodation or to reach the goal of home ownership. We have expanded the supply of public housing and increased our efforts to ensure public housing services reach those most in need.
In the past eighteen months alone we have directed $15 million in funding to a variety of related services, including refuges, outreach support, domestic violence services, emergency accommodation and information and referral services. We have begun the hard work of implementing Australia’s most expansive and innovative housing affordability action plan. This plan will, over the next few years, deliver tangible benefits to everyone seeking to access the housing market, whether they be seeking public or social housing support, private rental accommodation or first entry into the home ownership market.
While we supported the needs of the most vulnerable in our community, we have also taken concrete steps to help their carers. The Carers Recognition Legislative Amendment Bill was passed by the Assembly in November last year and, when implemented, the changes will ensure multiple carers are recognised and that they must be consulted as part of any decision-making process. This represents a significant step forward in carer recognition. We continue to support carers through the carers recognition grants program and through our respite services.
Accessing government grants has, in the past, been likened to negotiating a complex maze. The government has moved to fix this problem and boost both access to and knowledge of the full range of government grants through the establishment of the online grants portal. The portal is already operating as a one-stop shop for ACT government grant information and is evolving to becoming a fully operational online application system. We will ensure that lack of access to a computer is not a barrier by maintaining access to paper-based applications and ensuring wide publicity for each program in free and mainstream media.
Paying public thanks for the services of those who went to war, who served in peacekeeping missions, is a quintessential element of every Australian town and community. While the ACT has long been blessed with memorials testifying to the services of Australians in all theatres of war, we have until recently lacked a memorial to those who volunteered their services from our own community. In August last year, I was proud and privileged to officially dedicate the ACT Memorial, a graceful and evocative memorial that honours all Canberrans who offered their services, or lives, to defend our nation in conflict or to support peacekeeping efforts throughout the globe.
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