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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 206 ..
Reference
MR STEFANIAK (11.25): I move:
That-
(1) The following matter be referred to the Standing Committee on Community Services and Social Equity for inquiry and report by the last sitting day in May 2002:
(a) accommodation and support services for homeless men and their accompanying children including the recent evaluation of the ACT's Men's Accommodation and Crisis Service; and
(b) any other related matter.
(2) No further action be taken by Government on the current tender for the accommodation and support service for homeless men and their accompanying children until the committee has reported to the Assembly and the Government has presented its government response to the committee report.
This motion relates to the referral to the Standing Committee on Community Services and Social Equity of matters relating to the accommodation and support services for homeless men and their accompanying children.
Mr Speaker, in 1999 a crisis shelter was established specifically for men, with their children, fleeing trauma, marriage break-up, domestic violence and so on. It was the first of its kind in the ACT and it attracted a lot of interest Australia-wide. The service was to be evaluated, and indeed that process commenced, I believe, in 2000. I recall being the responsible minister at the time. I ceased, indeed, to have any carriage of the matter from December 2000.
As someone who has visited the service and received a fair bit of feedback from various people, including members of the police force who have had cause to refer people there, and some other agencies, it would seem to me, and indeed I think to other members who have been to the service, that it is well run and has certainly established a real niche in an area where there was unmet need. In fact, Mr Speaker, I think there is quite a lot of unmet need, which I will come to and which forms part of the motion I have before the Assembly.
I recall that whilst I was minister there were some problems in terms of the evaluation of how it was going, and some concerns were raised by the people running MAACS , the Men's Accommodation and Crisis Service. These were taken up with the department and, indeed, from my recollection of that, a lot of things were solved. I am also aware, Mr Speaker, that there have been some changes in personnel within the department since that time.
There was an initial evaluation report, which made some comments but which indicated some vague little things in relation to the service. I can recall from my time as minister that some issues were taken up and some things were resolved.
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