Page 3581 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
expenditure so that positive outcomes are delivered for children and young people in the care and protection system? Will the money simply be wasted? To even question how the money is to be delivered goes to the root of the problem that we see with this minister. The most vulnerable in our community who rely on the directorate to be competent from the top are, sadly, disappointed. We need safeguards to ensure that the services are delivered effectively and on time.
We also see that in this directorate there have been extraordinary amounts of money set aside for feasibility studies. There are two feasibility studies in relation to community centres: $650,000 for a feasibility study for the Turner seniors centre and another $550,000 for a feasibility study for the Weston Creek community centre. These are astronomical figures. When you add to that the $350,000 for a feasibility study on whether to keep the Civic childcare centre on its present site or move it somewhere else, you have to wonder about that. There are real problems there. I would have thought that perhaps, over a couple of cups of coffee, you could work out whether it was better to move it somewhere else or redevelop it on that site, but to spend $350,000 on that is an alarming figure.
There is $830,000 over four years to attract and retain care and protection staff. It is okay to attract them, and over the last four or five years the ACT government has spent a lot of money doing international recruitment, but what do we do when they come here to ensure that they stay, that their positions are valued, and that they have a sense of being worth while and making a real difference to children in the ACT?
The Canberra Liberals have spoken a lot about the Community Services Directorate. I am sure that my colleague Mr Doszpot will speak about this as well. We see that the principal problem in the Community Services Directorate is one of culture. There is a lot of money. As you just read out, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is $228 million allocated for the Community Services Directorate. That is a lot of money to be allocated to care and protection services, looking after our vulnerable young people, looking after our disabled people. It may be that that money, even if it is well spent, is spread very thinly, but the real concern at the moment is that the culture is so bad that people do not get the services that they are looking for, whether it is in disability services—I am sure Mr Doszpot will talk about that—or whether it is in areas that I have more concern about, with our vulnerable young people and the care and protection system. The culture is rotten.
As Mr Smyth said about leadership the other day, fish rots from the head. If things are wrong in the Community Services Directorate it needs to do better. (Second speaking period taken.) People say to me on a regular basis that the care and protection system is broken, and I see no evidence that they are wrong. I do not resile from that. The care and protection system needs to be better. The Community Services Directorate needs to be better, and it needs to be able to provide better and more accountable services, more sensitive services, to the most vulnerable people in the ACT.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this is about culture. When you have a problem with culture, that is caused by leadership. We have seen bad leadership over the entire 11 years of our time in the ACT.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video