Page 3185 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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opportunity to participate and have their voices heard. I note in response to recommendation 41 that the department intends to distribute a training needs survey. I believe this is a very important step towards ensuring that kinship carers are supported in the extremely important role that they are playing.
I believe there is more information to be gathered in relation to the needs of kinship careers and some work to be done to make sure that they are not left feeling isolated or abandoned. One thing we know about carers is that often they do not even recognise themselves as carers and will just get on with the job of caring, which often means that they fail to look after themselves.
The lives and needs of kinship carers can be complex and difficult and we need to make every effort not only to protect the children but also to ensure that we are looking after the kinship carers, because we know that these children deserve our full support and assistance, and that means looking after their natural supports and ensuring that their natural supports are supported.
The ACT Greens are therefore happy with the allocations made within the appropriations to these areas.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (9.46): I rise tonight to speak on the issues of disability and multicultural affairs. Obviously the shadow minister, Mr Steve Doszpot, is unavailable, and he is so because of a loss in his family. I take this opportunity, as there will be no adjournment speeches tonight, to pass on my sympathy to Mr Doszpot, to Maureen, to his family. I know that that sentiment would be shared by all parties within this place. I certainly thank the leader of the Greens for having passed that on to me. I commend Mr Doszpot for his understanding of the issues of disability and multicultural affairs, for his passion and for his engagement. I know that he will be greatly disappointed that he could not be here tonight to speak to those issues.
In terms of multicultural affairs, Mr Doszpot is a Hungarian and he is part of the multicultural community. He is a proud Australian, but he also has a proud heritage. I think that that heritage enables Mr Doszpot to have a level of understanding about what it means to live in a multicultural society which really shows through in the work that he does. When it comes to disabilities, he is a very passionate man. He is a people person and I think that that shows through. If any of our portfolios are about people, it would be multicultural affairs and it would be disabilities.
He meets endlessly with constituents. He is constantly on the road to meet with constituents or they are meeting with him. I know that he spends much time listening to them, talking with them and fighting for their causes. Very few of us would not have been to an activity that Mr Doszpot has run. Mr Hargreaves and others would certainly remember the event of last year, the Wheelchair for Scarlett appeal. There have been other nights. He ran one quite recently for Josh. He has been fighting for other people in the community, be it the Shepherd Centre that we were talking about recently, Karen Costello, Noah’s Ark or people suffering from autism.
He shows an understanding in these two policy areas of the two things that a minister has to have an understanding of—that is, to treat people with a physical and mental
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