Page 3183 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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In regard to the Office for Women, the Greens have been consistently calling for gender-disaggregated data. It is part of our agreement with the ALP and we called for it in previous Assemblies. I am pleased to hear about the trial being undertaken through ACT Health, that this will be completed and provided to the Office for Women shortly and that this work is part of a broader commitment as part of the ACT women’s plan 2010-15.
Gender-disaggregated data is vital to measure our progress against targets for improving the health, wellbeing and social inclusion of Canberra’s women and girls. Without it, it is far more difficult to measure our progress against targets such as those outlined in the women’s plan. Of course, women make up more than half of our community yet they are under-represented in leadership positions, they have lower incomes, they have specific health complaints and they are more likely to be socially excluded. We need the data to help us better address and focus government spending and government programs for the most beneficial impact.
I welcome the government’s agreement to recommendation 38 of the estimates report and look forward to its timely implementation as it will increase the information available about women in the budget and annual reports. I note that this has been included in the Chief Minister’s annual report directions.
I am disappointed by the response to recommendation 37 about getting a further breakdown of funding in the community services area. It would have really been helpful if we had had some understanding of how much money was given to the Office for Women, the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and so forth and we believe that this information would not be too onerous to provide.
With youth service, output 4.1, community-based youth services continue to experience significant challenges with regard to workforce development, recruitment and retention and are facing increasing demand. We know that a strong community-based youth sector is vital to support our young people. We know that youth services are often right on the front line of emerging trends for young people and have the opportunity to have significant input into the development of policy and practice that allow us to move forward the agenda of keeping young people safe, healthy and engaged.
The Greens are pleased to see additional funding allocated to the operating costs of Bimberi to ensure staffing ratios are adequate and that the intended rehabilitation and training programs can be run in the centre. We really need to continue with the focus of rehabilitation and life-changing supports for these young people. This is another critical life stage development and in order to break cycles of criminal behaviour we need to ensure that supports are rigorous and well funded to make follow-up and wraparound services a part of the rehabilitation of young people here in the ACT.
With care and protection, we saw a large amount of funding going into care and protection services in the ACT. It was necessary to seek further clarification about the detail of how these funds would be spent within the community. Question 657 gave some broad clarification about the out-of-home-care budget, where it is going to be spent. There were a number of areas that many of us would agree were valid areas and do need to receive much needed funding.
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