Page 1765 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Almost as an afterthought, and coincidentally only after my colleague Mr Wall held a forum, did the government advise it was also hosting a forum for interested and affected families. Just on that, I would like to congratulate Mr Wall on taking the lead on this issue. It is regrettable it was necessary. It was pleasing that the minister thought it was such a good idea that she copied it, but it should not have been necessary.
The minister did conduct a forum at which a whole two hours was made available for departmental officers to try to answer some of the hundreds of questions families had. Interestingly, and I would expect it annoyed and offended parents as much as it did me, Ms Burch was heard on Monday morning radio spruiking the forum and saying it was intended to—and I quote—“start a conversation”. Minister, a conversation has two elements: one of those is listening, and you have form on not listening. The latest episode further underlines that fact.
Minister, the conversation should have been started; it should have been done and dusted 12 months ago. The outcomes of those conversations should have been known before parents had to make choices about preschools for their children. The conversations should have been started by the minister and her officials last year with parents, one on one or in groups, to offer help and assistance to vulnerable families who face burdens that most families do not have any understanding of.
The forum staged on Monday was well attended, as well it might. Families and service providers all want to know what is going on and why the rush. To suggest the minister has been communicating flies in the face of the response from the people at the forum on Monday.
To have a child with a learning or development difficulty and not know what to do, where to go and how to access support is bad enough; but you have a minister who, true to form, puts her figurative fingers in her ears and does not want to know about it until the cries for help become a thunder. And it is only after the shadow minister points out just how wanting the minister is on this issue that she decides to do something—and that is, to start a conversation.
Families have no idea which non-government organisations will deliver these services. Many specialist service providers have no idea what they might be able to deliver. Almost again as another afterthought, the government has announced to very few people, if any at all directly, that there are business grants available to help these service providers—speech therapists, occupational therapists—to set up businesses.
Families with children entering preschool next year had to submit their names by the end of May to their school of choice. For families with children with a disability, it is not as simple as picking the one in your area. You choose one that offers the best-fit intervention program.
Equally, the school was able to determine what resources they might need. Now all that is to change. So we have families totally lost and frightened as to where they go. They know that early intervention is critical to their children reaching their full
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video