Page 948 - Week 03 - Thursday, 19 March 2015
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a government, we have a strong base to progress this work. We have a clear purpose and shared objectives across government and with our community partner sectors.
We want to listen to people who have experienced exclusion and model our response on their words. This is the only way we can offer the supports they need to have equality with all other Canberrans. This approach drove the development of the human services blueprint. The blueprint changes the way human services are developed and delivered and puts the principles of social inclusion and equality into practice through a systems reform approach to the delivery of health, education, justice and community services.
We are listening to the voices and experience of people who access services and we are shaping the way we deliver services so that they are more person centred, strength based and inclusive. Essentially we want to make it easier for people to get the right support at the right time for the time that it is needed.
The government’s approach to social inclusion and equality is a long-term commitment. We have some way to go before we can say we are there. By this I mean we have a community where every single Canberran is able to join in our community.
This agenda is shared across government but it is also one we share with the community. For members of this place who need some help with online research, you can find information on our agenda embedded across government, in our commitment to removing barriers to inclusion by improving and renewing our transport, housing and urban design. You can also find it shaping the quality services we deliver to support people who are pushed out or locked out by barriers beyond the ACT government’s control. Outside the human services blueprint you see it informing the way we support tenancies in public housing, our therapeutic interventions for children and young people that have experienced trauma, and the collective development of the new common ground facility.
The government is committed to working alongside Canberrans so that we can all share equally in the benefits of this wonderful city we call home. If any member would like to have a chat with me about this social inclusion and equality approach, I would be happy to talk with them about how it is shaping the government’s responses to problems as they arise in our community.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Fitzharris.
MS FITZHARRIS: Minister, what has been the reaction in the community services and housing sectors to the establishment of the social inclusion and equality portfolio?
MS BERRY: The ACT government has a strong track record of delivering on its commitment to improving the equality of outcomes for all Canberrans, particularly for people in our community struggling to get a fair go.
When I talk to people in the community services and housing sectors, they are excited that government is recognising and valuing their work for Canberrans through the establishment of this portfolio. The sector is seeing this decision as an opening up of
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