Page 579 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
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still have a long way to go to in terms of equal opportunity in this great Territory of ours.
Mr Speaker, it has been an honour to speak to this matter at short notice. It is good that Mr Berry chose to make an early statement on this issue. I congratulate the Follett Government for doing it, but I draw to its attention that it should not fall into the trap into which the Hawke Government has fallen, of giving signals and putting out illusory messages to the population that it is really intent on bringing some social justice to an area when it has not done so. Let us hope that this Government can.
MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (3.59): The housing department makes homeless children its top priority. Thus, in the review that I have asked my housing department to do, its first report is on homeless youth. The Government and, I am sure, every member in this house believes that homeless youth are among the most important priorities to think about.
While we are doing a report into this, we firmly believe the best place for children is in their home. As we all know, however, this is not always possible because, if they break down, children have to have somewhere else to go. One of the most frightening things of the report that I released was that on a check there are about 500 children booking in and out of youth refuges at any one time in Canberra. This, of course, does not account for the ones we do not know about, so there is quite a tremendous worry about this.
My department has done quite a lot already. In other States only youth over 18 years can get a house from the department for renting. We have lowered the age to 16, which has been a great help. Another rule that we have waived is that once those young people manage to get employment they have been asked in the past to leave the house. We have changed that, so now we encourage them to stay on in the house because we feel it is a very stabilising influence on the other ones who are there in the house, and we also feel that they will help the others to obtain work or go back to school.
We are also encouraging things like house mothers and fathers. We have a case on the south side where a very good lady who has been supported by the Lions Club has got a house from the housing department, my department, and has young men living there, for whom she is responsible. She has the backing of the Lions Club, so we know that she is a very responsible person. My department is looking into having many more people like that in large houses with four, five or six bedrooms, where this can be done for young people. We are also looking at another one in Manuka at the moment, which we are hoping to be able to support with some backing from outside, from one of the service clubs. Knowing the people who will be running these houses takes a little of the worry off the department, because we all know some of the things that can happen in this way.
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