Page 1399 - Week 04 - Thursday, 12 April 2018
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including through sport, make an absolutely critical contribution to the mental wellbeing of young people arriving in our city, particularly young refugees and asylum seekers.
Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services provide related services for migrants, refugees and humanitarian entrants in a caring, supporting and enabling way. Companion House, of course, works with adults and children who have sought safety in Australia from persecution, torture and war-related trauma, things that would inevitably have a negative impact on a person’s mental health, and Companion House works very closely with those communities, again not only in responding to their individual needs but in building communities where people are able to support one another.
The Australian Red Cross is funded federally to deliver the humanitarian settlement program in the ACT now, which enables humanitarian entrants to build the skills and knowledge they need to become self-reliant and active members of the Australian community.
All this support is critical in supporting the wellbeing of community members. The work these organisations and their volunteers do is testimony to the generous nature of the Canberra community. And I speak about these because they are our partners, the government’s partners, in ensuring multicultural Canberrans get access to appropriate support.
All that said, implementing policies and offering services is only effective if the people who need them most can actually access them. To ensure accessibility of all ACT government services to all Canberrans, translating and interpreting services are available across the sector. Importantly, this means that if Canberrans from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds require access to a health-related service in a language other than English, they can access it.
As I outlined at the start of my speech, I believe the multicultural summit later this year will provide a good opportunity to consider the views of culturally and linguistically diverse Canberrans in relation to the services they need, including mental health services, and I look forward to hearing from the community through the multicultural summit and will ensure that officials provide any appropriate feedback to Minister Rattenbury and ACT Health.
Discussion concluded.
Privileges 2018—Select Committee
Proposed establishment
Debate resumed.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.04): I move:
Omit all words after “this Assembly notes”, substitute:
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