Page 175 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016

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wonder where the government’s priorities are when they can spend $700 million on a tram, but not manage to find less than $40,000 for an organisation that provides services to the blind and other people with reading impairment. It says a great deal about where the government’s priorities are. They are not where the opposition’s priorities are. The opposition is about providing services to people in the community; this government is about providing a tram for Mr Corbell and Mr Rattenbury’s legacies. We are not about legacy issues; we are about services.

It is interesting to see the list of programs—again, Dr Bourke referred to it—that are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of assistance under the ILC tier 2 program of the national disability insurance scheme. These are organisations that have been asked to change their model. There are many other organisations that have been asked to change their service model. For some organisations, that is possible.

As I have said, Radio Print Handicapped were given undertakings and assurances that their funding would be safe. That has not turned out to be the case. In addition to that, they are now being told—an organisation that provides a radio reading service, that runs a radio station—to change their model to provide services for an individual. And that is for want of $40,000, probably much less than is going to be spent by Mr Gentleman on his trip to Vancouver and the United States. For the people of Radio Print Handicapped, their future is going to be in jeopardy.

It shows the poor priorities of the members of this Assembly. It is with great disappointment that I will be reporting back to Radio Print Handicapped that the Labor Party and the Greens would not see their way clear to find $38,000 for the continued funding of their organisation.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Multicultural communities

MRS JONES (Molonglo) (4.18): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the important contribution made to Canberra by people of different ethnicities, faiths and cultures;

(b) the need for Canberra to continue to be a culturally inclusive and a welcoming city, and to continue to support freedom of expression for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities;

(d) the need to support the CALD community to have full access to the benefits of our city;

(2) calls on the Government to:

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