Page 2305 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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just been diagnosed. This is a family of three children, all of whom have autism of some form or other. When I spoke to her, I learned that the children had quite different manifestations of the condition.
Most of us would struggle to raise one child with autism, and we would think that life would be pretty challenging if we had two. But to have three children with autism and try and maintain a family life must be extraordinarily difficult. We do not know we are alive; we all have a little moan and groan about our aches and pains or the illnesses that our children have, but, for the most part, we are a blessed group who do not encounter those huge difficulties.
I suspect that people like this lady would never find the time or the energy to become politicised because she is so busy helping to keep her family on the road and functioning. We should acknowledge the work that parents do and provide them the assistance that comes from some funding of the peak body. It would show that the ACT Assembly and the ACT government actually recognise that this is a huge issue. It is an emerging and growing issue, and I think that more consideration should be given it.
Dr Foskey mentioned the schools consultation, which is now under this portfolio. It is worth noting that there is a degree of cynicism, given this government’s record on consultation. Mr Hargreaves oversaw one consultation on the Purdon report, and it seems that the ACT government has said, “Well, thank you, Purdons, for this piece of work; we’ll post it on the web page,” and that essentially was the end of it. People start to get pretty cynical if they put in the effort and they go to the meetings and they sit around the butcher’s paper and they give feedback and they send emails and they think about what has happened, and then the government says, “Thank you very much,” pats them on the back of the hand and then says, “We’ll just do that all again.” I think the community is starting to feel worn down and consulted out over schools and school closures. I think they are very concerned that no-one in the Stanhope government is listening to them.
My principal area of concern is child protection. Again, we do not really comprehend how it is for families who are doing it tough out in the ACT community. We are a privileged community. (Extension of time granted.) We are a largely middle-class, largely well-educated, largely well-remunerated community, and that means that from time to time the people who are doing it tough go unnoticed. It should not be instances like this week here in the ACT or last week in South Australia which focus our attention; we should be working to avoid the situation where people so palpably fall through the cracks.
The work being done by the staff of care and protection is mighty work. It is probably a thankless task. I do recall after the bushfires that some of the staff who had worked in care and protection and were co-opted to the bushfire counselling service and things like that found it was a complete breath of fresh air, because when they knocked on people’s doors, people were glad to see them, and that was an unusual experience for them.
Over the years there has been a lot of criticism of organisations like care and protection in various states, and there must be huge issues of morale—the difficulty of
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