Page 580 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
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One of our biggest problems, though, is the 11- to 16-year-olds. It is quite frightening to find from the report that there are quite a few of these found sleeping around in old cars and buildings which are disused and which they are able to get into. The Chief Minister told me that when she takes her clothing to one of the large bins late at night she always calls out, "Clothing coming in". She does not want to smother anybody with her clothing. I gather they are very warm places in which to sleep on a cold night.
But it is quite frightening to think that this is the sort of thing we have asked children to have to do - to crawl into clothing bins to be warm and looked after. I think it is very commendable of the Chief Minister at least to call out as she is throwing her clothing into the clothing bin. I had not thought about it, but it will make me think a little bit more about it from now on.
I have urged my department to do as much as it can. Our two priorities on the list of the review at the moment are homeless children and the aged because we feel they are the two groups of people in the community that need the most help. When we set up that review interest rates were not anywhere near as high as they are now, so we may have another priority and I guess it could go on and on.
The one about which I am speaking at the moment is homeless youth. This city seems so affluent to the visitors who come here. They think that it is a very rich city, but they never get to see the parts of Canberra that we do not want to show them. These are the parts where homeless youth gather. People come here and look around and say, "Oh, what a very wealthy city. Isn't it wonderful? There's plenty of everything". Unfortunately, they do not realise what is behind some of those windows and curtains.
As the old saying in England goes, "Curtains for kippers". For those who do not understand it, kippers are the cheapest food you can eat in England, so they said people had lace curtains but behind them they were eating kippers. I am sure a lot of that goes on in Canberra, and I am quite sure a lot of the homeless youth go to bed every night without food in their stomachs. It is not only important to see that they are housed but it is also important to see that they are fed and medically looked after.
It gives me great pleasure to speak on this and to say that my department is looking very strongly into this. We hope to come up with some solutions that will be acceptable to the house in taking care of it.
DR KINLOCH (4.05): There is one area about which I could speak briefly, and it is to do with what one could call a culture of poverty, a culture of disadvantage. One very worrying factor is related to this culture of disadvantage, especially related to certain minority groups. In our society there are some, but certainly not all, Aboriginal
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