Page 1679 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
multicultural young people. And while these promising practices have been effective in Canberra, this service faces increasing uncertainty because of funding issues.
The mainstreaming of youth services can be effective on many fronts. It has the capacity to bring welfare, education and other government services into core service delivery. Many youth services in the ACT successfully deliver these services for young people of all backgrounds. However, there is concern that mainstream youth services do not have the capacity or scope to deal with the specific needs of multicultural young people and, in this light, it is problematic to suggest that multicultural youth should be accessing these mainstream services simply because they are there.
The Youth Coalition of the ACT’s recent survey found that mainstream services in the ACT, while positive in many areas, do not have the specialist expertise and knowledge required to work with the support of specialist multicultural services, particularly in regard to supporting people who are newly arrived. In the ACT, specialist, appropriately funded multicultural youth services are required as part of the service system.
MYS has been supported, by means of a partnership with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, as recipients of a community inclusion fund to the amount of $78,000 per annum. This fund is due to expire in June 2009 and, while the government has committed one-off funding to “a multicultural youth service”, it has not specified who will get this funding or in what form that will be. While we strongly support the ACT government’s commitment to multicultural youth service provision, one-off funding is not an appropriate way to fund essential services.
We are particularly concerned that, while MYS continues to be nationally recognised as a promising best practice model, the issue of funding continues to jeopardise the existence of MYS. We cannot allow the closure of this essential service and I therefore call on the ACT government to appropriately and consistently fund this service.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (3.43): I thank Ms Hunter for moving this motion which recognises the role that young people play in our community. This year National Youth Week runs from 28 March to 5 April and the theme is “Make a move”. It is a great initiative and celebrates the great contribution so many young people make to the Canberra community. The week also brings together many young people to discuss issues of concern amongst young people in Canberra and brings ideas for government.
This is the 10th National Youth Week. The first was in 2000 and was established by the then Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, the Hon David Kemp. I understand the concept of Youth Week in Australia was set up in 1989 by the New South Wales government, led by the Hon Nick Greiner, with Terry Metherell as the minister for youth. National events, whether they be in commemoration of military events, national days, cultural days, promoting a cause or charity or highlighting the achievements of groups, in this instance young people, are important occasions.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .