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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4315 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the papers.

MS REILLY (5.22): I would like to congratulate the Chief Minister on this report and on her tabling speech. I am pleased that she decided, albeit reluctantly, to show respect to the Aboriginal people of the ACT by reading her speech, rather than incorporating it in Hansard. The tabling of an annual report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is one of the important recommendations of the royal commission. It was decided that it was important to have an annual reporting process so that people could see what progress was being made on the various recommendations but also to remind governments and communities of their responsibilities in this matter. It is excellent to see that yet again the ACT Government has produced a report.

I recognise that this year there has been a shift to themes in reporting on activities in relation to the recommendations of the royal commission. I hope that this will not lead to less information about what progress is being made in certain areas. There are some concerns. It has been a big year in the ACT for a number of reasons, but you are left wondering whether what the Chief Minister said about improving the economic and social wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT is actually happening.

The report lists a huge number of activities in various areas and agencies of government. You have to question the results of some of these activities. For example, on education, page 61 gives no comparative data. It shows what has happened in relation to children moving from one year to another, but it does not show whether there has been an increase or an improvement from previous years. According to the report, more children went from Year 7 to Year 8 than were actually in Year 7 - a rather difficult thing. Obviously, this is an indication that people are moving into the ACT. It would be useful to have more information on those figures.

As education is a key issue, it would be useful to have some comparative data on what happened in previous years and an indication of how many people are moving in and out of Canberra. Because of this lack of comparative data we cannot see whether there has been any change in activities in the ACT. There is little point in listing all these activities if we do not have any way of analysing whether they have been successful or not. Not a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use higher education facilities in the ACT, but there is nothing in the report to indicate that a lot of people come from interstate to attend the excellent institutions we have in the ACT.

Other issues in the report relate to the provision of family services and children at risk, a matter we will discuss next week when the Standing Committee on Social Policy presents its report. This annual report mentions four Aboriginal identified positions in child placement and fostering. Despite the Government saying for many months now that these positions are going to be filled, they remain unfilled. There is little point in having identified positions if little effort is made to fill them. I am also very pleased to see that, following the review of the Children's Services Act, the Aboriginal child placement principles will be incorporated into that Act when it is revised next year.

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