Page 2366 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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MRS JONES (Molonglo) (7.34): I go to the women’s portfolio. In the women’s portfolio over the last couple of years we have seen a decrease in spend and a decrease in outcomes. Fewer courses have been offered and there is at present a planning process underway, from my understanding, for the delivery of services to women.
Since the hurried announcement and shambles of the process of closing the Women’s Information Referral Centre we have no further indication of whom women’s services are aimed at, what those in such a target group need exactly and what study of Canberra’s population the services are based on. Someone somewhere in the department is tasked with coming up with a sellable model of women’s services which looks like they are aimed at women in some kind of need, and we will no doubt see a plan emerge sooner or later for the delivery of some courses.
The question remains: who are the services for, what are they trying to achieve, are they achieving these aims and can they be better delivered? The closure of the Women’s Information Referral Centre served to highlight that no-one really knows the answer to these questions and no-one really knows what the purpose of this entire area of government is, except to say that perhaps everybody wants to help some women. The closure of the Women’s Information Referral Centre was putting the cart before the horse, and I hope we will hear soon what the new plan is and what it intends to achieve, given that there are no additional spending measures outlined for women in this budget.
With respect to multicultural affairs, under this government it seems to be that English language courses, the Theo Notaras centre, supporting various ethnic communities, citizenship ceremonies and the Multicultural Festival each year are the main line items. The estimates committee report recognises the very great value of different ethnic communities that we have represented in Canberra. However, it also asks the government to focus on the provision of childcare places for women who participate in the study of English.
During the estimates process I outlined the economic position of a standard young family in Belconnen. In the case of that family, the father is a teacher, uni educated and in a stable, full-time job. After tax he brings into the house $65,000 in income. However, my experience of the new, ethnic communities in Canberra is that the fathers of families are earning significantly less than that. Some of them are educated to be accountants and in other professions but they are often working at Coles and Pizza Hut. As a result they are more likely to be bringing home $40,000 a year.
Wives and mothers in these households often stay home with the children. That is sometimes expected of them; sometimes they really want to. And if their English is not very fluent, some have little choice. The decision for wives to learn English is put second after the household being financially able to cope, which is perfectly understandable. However, think about the household on a $40,000 per year income. They often have just one car, an old one. The family sees that the wife’s English learning is an optional extra, and we should do everything possible to ensure that there are fewer barriers to that English learning; otherwise women can live here for decades
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