Page 168 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019

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As the Australian Child Wellbeing Project found when it researched the middle years, occurrences of low wellbeing tend to be concentrated in groups of young people who are recognised as marginalised: young people with a disability, young carers, materially disadvantaged young people, culturally and linguistically diverse young people, Indigenous young people and young people in out of home care. It is also those, as I noted earlier, who have experienced family conflict and breakdown. In other words, to take seriously the middle years is to take seriously the most vulnerable amongst us, and we must do so before the problems become too complex to solve.

This is the prudent and compassionate path for a government to pursue. It is the very meaning of the term “early intervention”, a principle the Canberra Liberals are thoroughly committed to. I find it disappointing that those opposite are happy to call upon the ACT government to make a formal commitment to improving services and programs for the territory’s children and young people in the middle but see no need for this government to actually demonstrate that commitment with specific provisions in the upcoming budget.

A formal commitment that is not backed up by genuine action is worthless, as everyone in this chamber knows. We have unfortunately had far too many such commitments in the past in this space, with successive Labor-Greens governments, with one clear example being pledging to take meaningful action on youth homelessness but not actually doing much at all. The problem is still with us, unaddressed and unresolved.

I put this government on notice that stakeholders, front-line workers, the Canberra Liberals and I will all be looking closely at the 2019-20 ACT budget. We all expect to see specific provisions in that budget that address important issues facing those in middle childhood. In their absence, we will be demanding a clear explanation as to why. Once again I commend this motion to the Assembly.

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Environment—Murray-Darling Basin

MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (3.44): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) acknowledges the significance of the Murray-Darling Basin, including its:

(a) multi-jurisdictional importance and contribution as the largest river system in Australia;

(b) finite water resources; and

(2) notes in particular the importance the Murray-Darling Basin has for, and in, the Australian Capital Territory, namely:

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