Page 714 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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that is so, does the Minister intend to respond to that body and answer its questions, and is their statement that "consultation" is a nice word to say but means nothing true?
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, I really appreciate the matter being raised by the Leader of the Opposition. I just do not have such an effective clipping service as he quite clearly does, and so I have not seen the article to which he refers, but when I do receive it I will comment upon it and give him an answer.
SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Ministerial Statement and Paper
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health), by leave: Mr Speaker, I have recently signed a new agreement on the supported accommodation assistance program with my Commonwealth colleague, the Minister for Housing and Aged Care, Peter Staples. I want to advise the Assembly today about the resulting changes to the supported accommodation assistance program, or SAAP as it is commonly known.
SAAP is a jointly funded Commonwealth-State program. It is administered in the ACT by my department in association with the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health and in close cooperation with the ACT Housing Trust. The ACT Labor Government has a firm commitment to ensuring that adequate services are available to homeless people in the ACT.
SAAP is an essential element of this Government's response to the needs of homeless people in our community. The primary objective of the program is to ensure that homeless people in crisis have access to good-quality supported accommodation and related support services. Endorsing the new SAAP agreement between the ACT and the Commonwealth will guarantee that SAAP continues for five more years, until the end of the 1993-94 financial year. This is the first time the ACT will be a full partner in SAAP since the program's inception in 1985.
SAAP came into being in 1985 as a major housing initiative of the Federal Labor Government. It amalgamated eight different funding programs, including the Commonwealth homeless persons assistance program, the States' women's refuge program and the youth accommodation program. These programs were joined together in SAAP by the Commonwealth and State governments in order to provide a broader and more stable funding base for organisations assisting the homeless.
In 1983-84 a total of $39m was spent by Commonwealth and State governments on various programs for the homeless, and by 1988-89 this had grown to more than $99m.
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