Page 3924 - Week 12 - Thursday, 29 October 2015
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this bill to the Standing Committee on HACSS, community organisations such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations and disability organisations will be able to make submissions on the bill and have them considered in detail and placed on the public record.
I commend to the Assembly the motion to refer this bill to the committee under standing order 174.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning, Minister for Roads and Parking, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations, Minister for Children and Young People and Minister for Ageing) (6.07): It is disappointing at this time for Ms Lawder to move this motion to refer the bill to a committee, because the current service system is not sustainable. Delays in these amendments will compromise the community’s and the government’s capacity to achieve better outcomes for children and young people in care and jeopardise the sustainability of the service sector, as contracted services will not be able to implement services as proposed. Furthermore, delays in the amendments will compromise UnitingCare Karinya House’s and Karralika’s capacity to deliver services under the strengthening high risk families program. Providers delivering practical, intensive in-home services have developed models that are premised on the care and protection services legislation and early intervention and prevention services working together to create the incentives needed for families to participate.
Furthermore, those delays will deliver quite difficult time lines. Direct implications in delaying this amendment will perpetuate high levels of red tape required to approve carers. This will immediately impact on the organisations’ capacity to recruit suitable carers in the system. It will delay the implementation of carer payments to carers of young people wishing to remain at home with their foster care family or kinship family beyond the age of 18, which could compromise existing care arrangements and place young people at risk.
It will also delay enhanced oversights requiring organisations to provide information to the Public Advocate and enhanced mandatory reporting. Delays will increase risks with new organisations commencing in the ACT, delaying consideration of long-term care arrangements and enduring parental responsibility also, and delays would have an impact on the capacity of organisations to commence services, under-strengthening high risk families.
There has been quite a bit of time for members to consider this bill and we have talked and worked cooperatively with members of the Assembly. We have also been working very hard with the stakeholders that Ms Lawder mentioned this afternoon. Therefore I cannot support the bill going to committee. We have consulted with the community very strongly and this bill has gone through scrutiny without any recommendations.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (6.10): I will not be supporting this bill going to a committee. I received an email from Ms Lawder at about 7.30 this morning raising this prospect. Having received that email I made some early calls and looked at the issue in a bit more detail. I too had some similar concerns, which Ms Lawder had
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