Page 3641 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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demonstrably not kept pace with either inflation or population growth, effectively resulting in year-on-year funding cuts.
Meanwhile, Canberra has become a more expensive place to live. Despite our higher-than-average incomes, nine per cent of all Canberrans are now living in poverty, including 11 per cent of children. Another 24 per cent are just scraping by. One-third of adults in Canberra report that they cannot survive a financial shock. Rents in the territory are the highest in the nation, and the December 2020 rental affordability index found that single-income couples with children and dual-income couples with children both pay a higher proportion of their incomes on rent in the ACT than anywhere else in Australia. Add in skyrocketing prices for gas, electricity, health care, education and so forth, and you have a perfect recipe for increased demand as well.
Two months ago I reported to this Assembly that the head of one community organisation had told me that demand for services had increased so much that employees and volunteers had been forced not just to work longer hours but, in some cases, to work seven days a week. COVID has brought into stark relief what has happened to our important community sector after years of government neglect.
I therefore welcome the increased funding for community services in this budget. But let us not pretend that this funding boost is anything other than Labor and the Greens playing catch-up after years of neglect. My great fear is that, once the immediacy of COVID fades, those opposite will return to ignoring our community services providers. That cannot be allowed to happen.
The reality is that the pandemic has made a significant impact on our communities, and some of these impacts are long-lasting, even permanent. Community recovery is essential, and it is vital that the ACT government listens to and works alongside the community so that any policy decisions being made are made after well-informed and thorough community consultation, and that decisions are made in a timely manner with transparency and efficiency. It is important that community consultation and participation with the ACT government are made as accessible as possible.
I know that there have been community partners who have been left out of the conversation for one reason or another, and it is important that they do not fall through the gaps when it comes to paving the community recovery road map. Supporting the economic and community recovery of all of our key service providers, organisations and industry groups in the ACT will be something that I will be keeping a sharp eye on, not only in the immediate future but in the years to come.
I wish to speak now on Safer Families. Almost from the moment I was first elected, I have voiced my concerns to and asked many questions of the ACT government about domestic violence in our city. I have spoken about the need to achieve better outcomes in prevention and early intervention. I have also warned the government that frontline services were experiencing an increase in demand that would become too much to bear unless more investment was made to meet community needs.
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