Page 3190 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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We have seen photo opportunities of these meetings between the Indigenous elected body and the cabinet and we have seen an estimates process that they went through with the Indigenous elected body. We also saw a report that was put out by the Indigenous elected body. How is it that through that process Mr Stanhope was unaware that the chair thought that the funding allocated for the budget was horrific, if it is not the case? Is Mr Stanhope saying that Terry Williams is wrong? Is he calling him a liar? Or has he simply been failing to communicate with the Indigenous community?
Quite clearly, this is a government that has lost focus. Both Mr Stanhope and Ms Burch are failing to deliver for the community—I think for different reasons. I think with Ms Burch it is through a lack of competence, a lack of understanding and a lack of ability. I think with Mr Stanhope it is through an ideological obsession that is now about self-interest. If you look at what he is delivering in this budget, if you look at where his focus is, if you look at where he is trying to attack others who are trying to put forward good plans and good ideas—he attacks people who try to put through policies like random drug testing—you can see where this government’s agenda is heading with Mr Stanhope. It is certainly not looking after the Indigenous community, it is not looking after disabled people and it is not looking after our multicultural community.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10:05): Groups representing people with a disability have communicated to the Greens and, I believe, the Assembly some common themes over the last year. These groups are of an opinion that, while disability services have greatly improved over several decades, progress recently has been slow. Secondly, groups have argued that the government’s definition of “disability” is too narrow, as it is based on the medical model of diagnosis. Many groups argue that governments should be adopting the social model proposed by the UN convention on the rights of people with a disability. The disability sector also believe unmet need and demand should be measured and made public to assist in the disability portfolio lobbying for appropriate funding through the budget process.
The Greens asked questions about the government’s measurement of outcomes—specifically those outcomes listed in the document, “Measures of success”, that accompanied the future directions strategy. The data would be useful in terms of the measurements proposed. However, it seems that the government may not have gathered that data to date. Instead, the government hopes that, by moving from a three-year to a 10-year funding cycle, measurements can be collected and analysed utilising the funding contracts it has with non-government organisations and the manner in which they report to government.
It also became apparent during the estimates process that follow-up on the post-school options planning process was not being conducted adequately. Much planning goes into developing plans for post-school options for young people graduating from schools such as Black Mountain school. However, there is no actual analysis of how many of those plans are successful. The measurement of this program’s outcomes is important because we are hearing more and more stories about young people having nowhere to go and parents having to give up jobs to look after their adult children full time.
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