Page 2739 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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Finally, in relation to heritage, I welcome the government’s allocation of funds to restoration work at Albert Hall, Lanyon, Mugga Mugga and Calthorpes House.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (5.49): On behalf of the Chief Minister, who has another engagement at this time, I am happy to try and respond to the range of issues that members have raised in the debate today.
I will start by taking the opportunity to provide that information in relation to the Women’s Legal Centre which was asked for during question time today but was raised by Ms Le Couteur in her comments around support for Indigenous people, in this particular regard for Indigenous women and legal services. Mrs Dunne asked me during question time today how much commonwealth funding is received by the Women’s Legal Centre. My advice is that the total commonwealth recurrent funding for the Women’s Legal Centre is currently $190,000 with indexation, and my preliminary advice is that it may reach a level of around $192,000 this coming financial year due to indexation. The Women’s Legal Centre, I understand, is awaiting final confirmation of this figure from the commonwealth.
I would like to provide the following information in relation to the other matters raised by Mrs Dunne. In 2008-09, the commonwealth provided $200,000 in one-off funding for the Women’s Legal Centre. This is additional to their ongoing recurrent funding that I have just detailed. Sixty thousand dollars of that money was specifically tied for the Indigenous program. Over a three-year period, the Women’s Legal Centre received $140,000 from the ACT government’s community inclusion fund for the Indigenous program, of which the Indigenous liaison position is a part. This amounted to approximately $46,000 a year from the ACT government community inclusion program, and that grant was due to expire in January this year. An additional $19,000 was subsequently found to allow that funding to continue until the end of this financial year.
The position of the Indigenous liaison person costs approximately $70,000 a year if it is full time. It has been full time over the 2008-09 financial year, and a part-time solicitor was employed to assist with the additional work undertaken by that liaison officer. The program in 2008-09 was funded partially through the community inclusion program from the ACT government and partially through the commonwealth’s one-off grants.
The commonwealth have indicated that in 2009-10 they will provide $70,000 in one-off funding for the Women’s Legal Centre. This represents effectively a reduction of $130,000 in the level of the one-off funding from the commonwealth. As a result, the Women’s Legal Centre approached the ACT and the commonwealth for continued funding for the position and indeed for additional funding for the program. The ACT government has provided $50,000 for support of the position in 2009-10 and this would be sufficient to fund the Indigenous liaison position at a part-time level. In doing so, the government has secured effectively a similar level of funding per annum to that which was provided from the community inclusion fund.
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