Page 1466 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 2021
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MR CAIN: What advice would you give women living with diabetes in the ACT, given this uncertainty about ongoing funding?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Cain for the supplementary. I should be very clear that this project was not specifically targeted initially at all women with diabetes in the ACT. This is a specific program to target gestational diabetes, which we know has been rapidly growing in our community, trying to target women who are either pregnant or considering becoming pregnant. That has not been primarily the target audience that in fact it has reached.
I would certainly encourage any woman who is considering becoming pregnant or who is pregnant to talk to their health practitioner, their midwife, about gestational diabetes—the risks associated with it and what prevention measures they might be able to take to reduce their risk of gestational diabetes. There is a lot of information online. They can still use the Capital Chicks CANberra information that is currently available. They can sign up to that community. They can participate in that.
As I said, I will follow up in relation to the funding issue.
Culture—multilingualism
MR BRADDOCK: My question is to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Minister, multilingual Canberrans bring great value to the Canberra community. What is the ACT government doing to recognise the value they bring?
MS CHEYNE: I thank Mr Braddock for the question. I absolutely agree that the many different languages that are spoken in the ACT are a very key part of what makes the ACT so great. We know from the 2016 census that about 24 per cent of households had a language other than English spoken in the home and that this has increased year on year.
Mr Braddock might be aware that we recently announced the development of the multicultural recognition act and, while I will not go to exactly what we think is going to be in that legislation and in our charter, in the draft charter we certainly have elevated the idea of language and how important that is to the community. At the moment we are conducting plenty of consultation and hearing from the community about what they would like to see in that and to make sure it is properly elevated and at the front of people’s minds.
We have also been doing quite a bit, particularly during the pandemic but generally as well, in ensuring that we have plenty of resources available, including translated resources. That has been information about testing facilities, a recovery plan, hotel quarantine, the check in CBR app and the vaccine rollout. These have been translated into 14 languages, being the most widely spoken in the ACT. On top of that, the multicultural recognition act has 14 fact sheets aiding that discussion paper, which are also reflective of those different languages that are popular in the ACT.
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