Page 4008 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
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A number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community sector organisations continue to participate on the advisory board and others have been involved in the past. Further, the original motion omitted the contribution of CIT’s Yuruana Centre, a very highly regarded centre amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT, which I remind Mr Milligan of, and the Aboriginal rangers of the healthy country program who will deliver a considerable portion of the program. These are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led services for the benefit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and I thank them for their strong commitment to the bush healing farm and for helping to deliver on the vision.
It is also important to remember the Ngunnawal elders and other community leaders and role models of the local community who will continue to play an active role with the bush healing farm and contribute heavily through yarning circles which will engage with clients.
Our staff in ACT Health in particular have made a significant contribution to the bush healing farm. It is a significant achievement that not only will this service be led by an Aboriginal staff member but that the majority of staff themselves identify as Aboriginal. This is a critical factor in making sure that the bush healing farm can deliver on its promise, and I invite Mr Milligan to reflect on his comments regarding the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the operations of the bush healing farm. I had the pleasure of speaking with some of those staff last week at the opening, and I thank them again for their enthusiasm and commitment to the bush healing farm. We look forward to having more involvement from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community sector services organisations and, indeed, we hope to engage with many other non-government organisations well into the future as we continue to evolve and expand the service.
However, to again be clear to the Assembly, ACT Health published a request for a proposal in late 2015 seeking interest among community sector organisations to operate the service in its entirety or form a consortium approach. Unfortunately, ACT Health did not receive any expressions of interest. This left the government in a difficult position but it was clear that the government needed to overcome this hurdle. The government chose to continue and did so by inviting a number of organisations to contribute to that discussion both through specific contracts to assist in the development of the farm and as members of the advisory board.
As time goes on and the farm continues to evolve, there will be further opportunities to involve other groups and organisations in the program. For example, I understand that Gugan Gulwan have been invited to come and visit the bush healing farm and have a discussion on how they might, both separately and in addition to the bush healing farm day program, use the facility to host some of their programs and events.
As I have said, we will build on this service, and this evolution will include a residential program. What this residential program looks like and when it will occur will depend on the evaluations the government conducts and the conversations it is having with other potential partners right now. As I said last week, we will learn from each iteration of the program and incorporate those learnings to continue to improve.
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