Page 42 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2019
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MR BARR: The total amount was capped at around $67 million and we have already received over $50 million so the amount that has not yet been paid to the territory is now only a handful of millions of dollars.
Homelessness—services
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the minister for housing. It is in relation to homelessness services over the Christmas period. Minister, I note that OneLink and the Early Morning Centre, two of Canberra’s key homelessness services, were shut down during the week between Christmas and new year. Minister, what services are available to people experiencing homelessness during that period in addition to the annual Christmas DV initiative?
MS BERRY: OneLink was available and open for a number of days across that Christmas period—the government shutdown. If there were people who needed to get in touch with a homelessness service or OneLink during that period, OneLink would have been available via a phone message and then somebody would have contacted the individual afterwards. I can check on any other services that were open during that period. Of course services like the Domestic Violence Crisis Service had availability during that period as well, should people have required that support. But I will get all of that information on services that were available to people over that period to Ms Le Couteur and to the Assembly.
MS LE COUTEUR: Is the unmet demand for homelessness services and assistance during this period being monitored? How do you propose to meet the unmet demand?
MS BERRY: I am not sure what unmet demand Ms Le Couteur is talking about. As I said I will get information to Ms Le Couteur about services that were available during that period.
Schools—violence
MS LEE: My question is to the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development. Minister, yesterday, 11 February, the Canberra Times reported on a group of parents who were so concerned about the safety of their children at a Tuggeranong primary school that they wrote to you outlining incidents which had gone back as far as 2017. They expressed frustration that nothing had been done for over a year. Minister, when were you first advised of this issue?
MS BERRY: I received four pieces of correspondence on the issues that were described in the Canberra Times yesterday throughout 2018, typically referring to individual students who had been injured or incidents at the school. The petition letter that was referred to in the Canberra Times I received in my office on 8 November last year. My office subsequently spoke with the sender of that petition on 15 November. I then escalated the matter to the education directorate as I would with any of those kinds of situations.
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