Page 3584 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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Through estimates, questions were asked around how the ACT government, as an accommodation provider, had analysed options for expanding the range of accommodation. The ACT government has announced through the budget $500,000 to look at government-provided disability housing models.
Carers ACT made a budget submission this year, requesting $250,000 to undertake an economic and social analysis of models for people with disabilities, including involvement of government, the community and private sector. The government advised in the estimates hearings that it believed the work had already been completed. However, the work done by the ACT government looked at the government sector and did not examine housing models that could be delivered by, as I have already noted, the community or private sector, which is what Carers ACT is particularly interested in and it is what we should be encouraging.
It should be noted that this proposal from Carers ACT came out of a housing summit held here at the Legislative Assembly and it was supported by all groups and stakeholders at that forum. It was one of the major outcomes from that day. Ms Hunter and I also made additional comments to the estimates committee report on this and recommended that this proposal be supported. The Greens have also made an election commitment to fund this proposal.
On ageing, in the recent postcard survey conducted by the Council on the Ageing, the two biggest issues for older Canberrans were the accessibility and reliability of footpaths and public transport. I think it does show that, while all buses will be coming up to disability service standards, it is something we have to be vigilant on. A lot of people use public transport by necessity and as a choice, and we need to make it accessible for them.
I note that this is the final year of additional funding put towards the construction and maintenance of footpaths, as set out under the parliamentary agreement. I have had, as I know other Greens MLAs have had, great feedback about this initiative from older people in Canberra and hope to see a strong focus on active transport in future budgets.
I also note, although it is not in this budget, the older persons assembly that was held here. That came about through a Greens motion and was based on the older persons assembly that was first held in Scotland. The assembly held here in the ACT was the first held in this country. As the Greens have said previously, I hope this is something we see as a regular occurrence here in the ACT. I think it is a particularly useful and proactive way for older people to be able to make a contribution to policy development that affects them in the ACT.
Just briefly on the multicultural portfolio, there was not a specific funding allocation in this budget for multicultural programs. An issue that I raised in estimates was the multicultural indicator, which is the number of people participating in the Multicultural Festival. The point that has been made to me by a number of stakeholders involved with multicultural groups is that we need to look beyond the festival in terms of how the ACT is addressing multiculturalism in our community every day. This point was made to me at the various Ramadan activities that I took
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