Page 4719 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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will be in Canberra from 4 December to 5 April. Canberra will be the first of only three cities in the world to host this magnificent event. It will be great for Canberra. Commitment made, commitment delivered.
The first 12 months of the government have been full of energy in my portfolios, from building schools to planning suburbs, from opening early childhood centres to drought proofing sports grounds. The first 12 months of the Stanhope government have also been full of ideas about the future of vocational training, designing new suburbs and world-class tourism events. A year into the government, we are effectively at quarter time. I am reminded of the words of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who said that you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find that you get what you need. And that sums up the first year of the third term of government. (Time expired.)
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women) (12.13): Today I rise to speak on some of the achievements of the third Stanhope Labor government, an active, progressive and consultative government that I am proud to be a member of. I also rise to make my first address as a minister in this government with responsibilities for disability, housing, children and young people, community services, ageing, women and multicultural affairs. I thank the Chief Minister for the opportunity to serve the people of Canberra in a ministerial capacity, and I look forward to delivering on the commitments of the ACT government to the people of the ACT at the last election.
As the Chief Minister mentioned earlier, ACT Labor has been listening, consulting, developing new policies and delivering on commitments we made to the people of the ACT at the election 12 months ago. I would now like to outline some of the work that has been carried out in the first year of this government in agencies that I have inherited. Before becoming a minister, I was already familiar, through committee work, events, hearings, other Assembly business and through interactions with the dedicated and professional men and women who work at DHCS, with the wonderful work of DHCS, which is primarily a service-driven and service-based organisation.
The government has provided specific support services and worked with our community partners to improve the lives of all Canberrans, but particularly those most in need of support. I could see at once the strong relationship between the community sector and the government, which is demonstrated through consultative processes, joint policy work, funding arrangements and development of new services and community initiatives. In this first year, the ACT Labor government has continued to demonstrate its support for the community sector and focus on building community capacity for our most vulnerable citizens. For example, in the 2009-10 budget, the ACT government committed additional resources to supporting the sector, such as funding for additional speech pathology positions and a new initiative of funding for play therapists.
The ACT government has allocated space and completed designs for over 40 community organisations in community hubs, completed consultation with the community on two new neighbourhood halls in Griffith and Bonython, completed the
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