Page 1872 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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The deregulation of university fees for students will allow universities to charge whatever they like for courses. It seems that it was okay for those making these decisions now to get their free education in the seventies and eighties, but now we cannot afford to offer today’s young people even the comfort of a regulated university sector.
There are cuts to legal services such as Legal Aid, the women’s legal centre and the Environmental Defender’s Office, again taking a hit at those who most need support in what are, almost by definition, challenging times—a hit at those who can least afford it, a hit at services that work harder than most to provide those services. This is at odds with the ACT government, which has announced $416,000 over four years to support and enhance the work of the ACT Aboriginal Legal Service.
We see cuts to core funding for environment peak body organisations. I suppose we probably should have expected that. It is simply a matter of ideology to cut money from those who are working to protect the environment.
Cuts to welfare support for our young people feature in the budget, putting at risk the financial wellbeing of those under 30 and increasing the risk of homelessness. Now we hear that there might be funding for “emergency payments” to assist those in real trouble. What a rotten welfare system we are heading for when we push people into that kind of situation where they become desperate enough to need “emergency payments”!
We see cuts to the funding for renewable energy. Thankfully, here in the ACT we are continuing to support that, and we have a climate change policy that acknowledges the realities of what the science is telling us about the state of our planet and acknowledges the fact that if we do not tackle climate change we will see increasing costs to the ACT government that will undermine our ability in the future to spend on the things that matter.
There has been a resounding silence from the federal government about the future of funding for housing and homelessness, creating great uncertainty. The ACT, however, have not walked away from their responsibilities. We will continue with matched funding on the national partnership agreement on homelessness in this year’s budget. For the sector, this 12-month transitional agreement, with no further commitments being made by the commonwealth, is not ideal, but I am happy that the ACT has stepped up to the plate, at least for this period.
This budget has a number of key areas which I believe are delivering essential services to the people of Canberra, such as health care, hospital beds and walk-in centres. These are critical services for our community; and while we bear the storm of the federal budget cuts, it is vital that the ACT continues this important work. The Greens value the investment in the walk-in and community health centres in Belconnen and Tuggeranong. There is a good balance between preventative and acute health care provided by these facilities.
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