Page 1464 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The territory’s goods and services tax revenue declined by over half a billion dollars over four years after a commonwealth Grants Commission review of relativities.
Last year we saw the commonwealth government introduce the Indigenous advancement strategy. Here in the ACT we received only seven per cent of requested funding through the Indigenous advancement strategy, representing a funding shortfall of some $6.3 million. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service providers around the country experienced similar outcomes and expressed widespread confusion and dissatisfaction with the IAS funding process.
The commonwealth’s legacy of penny pinching of funding over successive budgets has impacted directly on the ACT government’s ability to provide services to Australia’s most vulnerable families. A case in point is the cessation of the national partnership Indigenous child development project on 30 June 2014, which had funding tied to the West Belconnen Child and Family Centre for a period of four years. In total $1.1 million of funding identified for the West Belconnen Child and Family Centre was lost in 20130-14 when the national partnership was terminated.
The end of the national partnership meant cuts in the number of positions available at the West Belconnen Child and Family Centre and this has directly impacted on the government’s capacity to deliver child development services and build the resilience of families to support their children. Of the total clients engaged through the West Belconnen Child and Family Centre, the vast majority are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
The work of the child and family centres in the Gungahlin, Tuggeranong and west Belconnen communities contributes to the fulfilment of the ACT government’s vision for all people to reach their potential, make a contribution and share the benefits of an inclusive community. Through the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2015-2018 we have taken a whole-of-government commitment to pursuing equitable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body.
In the commonwealth government budget, predictably Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lose out again. The abolition of the Indigenous tutorial assistance scheme and the Indigenous support scheme, programs that helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education complete their studies, are irresponsible. In my opinion, the most successful initiative that the commonwealth has ever launched in this country in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs was the work that was done in tertiary education, and here we see them cutting in that very area. And we are yet to see how those changes will play out. However, we might think, when we are trying to close the gap, these programs would be essential. Despite the commonwealth’s continual effort to cut funding, the ACT government will continue to stand up for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans to achieve equitable outcomes.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.06): Madam Speaker, I thank Mr Hanson for moving the amendment. It is interesting that the critique by Mr Barr of Mr Hanson’s speech was about how angry he was, yet this is the man who, within minutes of standing up,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video