Page 2248 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Mr Barr: Have something interesting to say, Steve.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr!
MR DOSZPOT: I am here to represent my community. I am here to represent the community, Minister Barr.
Mr Barr: Stand for something and you might find—
Mr Smyth: He can’t ignore your warning, Mr Speaker. He just ignores you.
Mr Hanson: What do you stand for?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Let us continue with the speech, Mr Doszpot.
Mr Hanson: Closing down disability services in the community—is that what you stand for?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Doszpot has the floor.
Mr Hanson: Is that what you stand for?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, thank you.
MR DOSZPOT: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I do not think the totally out-of-touch nature of this minister, his perception of his job, let alone his application to his job, can go without comment. He kept referring to a tender. This has been mooted for months but, as far as I am aware, there is still no tender. There is still no definite date for this much vaunted tender, nor is there any guarantee that either or both of these organisations that we have been discussing this morning, the Shepherd Centre and Noah’s Ark, will meet the criteria to be able, in fact, to respond to the tender.
Let me turn to Ms Burch and her comments regarding my motion this morning. Again, Ms Burch, you will need to clarify what you have said. You have said that funding used to support the Shepherd Centre has been allocated to other initiatives, which you denied a few minutes ago. Yet in answer to a question on notice you said, “Yes, from 2010-11 the funding will be used for services for students with a disability provided by non-government organisations that are aligned to current ACT government priorities.” We have an issue with not only the minister for education but also the minister for disability about their lack of consultation, their lack of talking to each other about the support that should be given to organisations that the community wants and needs. It is time they started looking at the needs of the community.
I would like to thank Ms Hunter and the Greens for their support of this motion. I note Ms Hunter’s comments regarding the time frame, but we are in a fairly interesting bind here. After these sittings we go into a lengthy winter break and we need decisions now. We need this minister to make decisions. As you, Ms Hunter, have stated, this is not a great deal of money in comparison with the sort of money that the
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