Page 556 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 17 February 2016

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I should have mentioned that the letter that I read out talking about the need to address those people here said, “I can’t ignore the plight of a large number of people in our own country who need support.” That letter was from Father Chris Riley from Youth off the Streets, who was the New South Wales Australian of the Year in 2003 and 2012 and an Australian of the Year finalist in 2003 and 2012 as well as having many other strings to his bow. He does fantastic work with disadvantaged youth, especially young people experiencing homelessness.

Adding to the demand and adding to already stretched services are not the solution. I will make a final point that comparing us to other states and territories is something that you resort to when you do not have much else to say. There are a lot of areas where we are not very comparable to other states and territories: size, geography, rural and remote areas, the Indigenous population. We are talking about the fact that we have the second highest rate of homelessness in Australia, second only to the Northern Territory. We have the highest proportion of people receiving a service, in effect. We should note that we have one urban area, if you like, so we should be providing service. But what we should be doing, what we have to be doing, is providing exits from homelessness, not more strategies, more talking. We need to provide people with very real options as to how to exit from homelessness services in a long-term, safe, secure, sustainable way. Therefore, we will be opposing the amendment today.

Question put:

That Ms Berry’s amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 9		Noes 8
Mr Barr	Ms Fitzharris	Mr Coe	Ms Lawder
Ms Berry	Mr Gentleman	Mr Doszpot	Mr Smyth
Dr Bourke	Ms Porter	Mrs Dunne	Mr Wall
Ms Burch	Mr Rattenbury	Mr Hanson
Mr Corbell		Mrs Jones

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Light rail

MR COE (Ginninderra) (5.43): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) an Annual Availability Payment will be made by the ACT Government as part of a contract to design, build and operate Capital Metro;

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