Page 5056 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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The rates of incarceration, arrest and apprehension in this place are some of the highest in the country. The education outcomes for Indigenous children are two years behind their non-Indigenous peers. The health indicators are worse across a range of areas, and the level of drug and alcohol addiction facing the community is alarming. We have the second highest rate of kids in care. I could keep going. The report card for the government is terrible and yet by their own admission they are struggling to find measurable, meaningful indicators. After 18 years of failure, if they cannot even collect data I am even more worried that they are looking to implement a 10-year regime.
Perhaps the only bright aspect to all of this is the ongoing rhetoric about self-determination. This is a concept I wholeheartedly support but, yet again, the government fails to deliver. Aboriginal people should be empowered to deliver their own solutions, and yet what we see from this government does not meet those targets.
The community wants the Boomanulla facility restored. They presented options to manage it as a viable, sustainable venue, but what has happened? The government have taken 18 months to review tenders and then have decided to manage it themselves. The community are still locked out of this important site. Then we have the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. Again, there was a lot of talk from this government about creating an Indigenous-led healing space. They even engaged a local Aboriginal-run organisation to write the model of care and give them the road map. Then what happened? They took the road map and abandoned the model of care. They pushed out the community and now the facility is run—you guessed it—by the ACT government.
I am sorry, but I am very cautious about buying into the minister’s version of self-determination and I am worried that the new approach is to shift blame onto the community without giving them the ability to demonstrate their potential. It is all well and good to talk about these things, but delivering is another thing. I look forward to reviewing these documents in further detail. I am hopeful there will be some good news and viable options to improve things, moving forward. However, after 18 years of Labor in this place and after 18 years of committees, reviews and reports I am very doubtful this will be much different.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Plastic waste reduction
Ministerial statement
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Roads) (10.45): I welcome the opportunity to report to the Assembly on the important work we are doing to reduce plastic waste in the ACT and to provide an update on the status of the review into the ACT’s plastic bag ban. I will also outline early investigations into opportunities for reducing single-use plastic.
Fortunately, Canberrans are among the best recyclers in the country. Each year we generate around one million tonnes of waste, and 70 per cent of that is re-used or
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