Page 3890 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 October 2005
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marvellous job of getting together a number of events. The week was launched on Monday by Sir William Dean, former Governor General of Australia, and Julie Tongs of the Winnunga Nimmitjah Aboriginal Health Service, and was attended by a number of Assembly members.
The day is part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the millennium development goals adopted by 189 heads of state and government in 2000. That represents a partnership between rich and poor countries to fight extreme poverty and achieve concrete measurable improvements in the lives of millions of men, women and children across the world. The government supports both the millennium declaration and the millennium development goals and their ambitious targets, and has set its own ambitious targets as part of the Canberra social plan. The targets are as follows:
• reduce long-term unemployment: the government’s target is to reduce the level of long-term unemployment to 12.5 per cent of total unemployment by 2013;
• decrease income inequality: the government aims to decrease income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, to average at most a figure of 0.25 over the decade to 2013;
• reduce homelessness: the government has undertaken to reduce primary homelessness to as close to zero as possible by 2013;
• increase year 12 completion: the government’s target is to increase to 95 per cent the proportion of 19-year-olds with a year 12 certificate or equivalent by 2013; and
• increase the proportion of adults with post-school qualifications, the target being to increase to 70 per cent the proportion of 25 to 64-year-olds with post-school qualifications.
Tackling the causes of poverty and social exclusion is a significant challenge for any government, but we are not afraid to tackle them. In Canberra—a place where people enjoy a quality of life that is equal to the best in Australia—it is easy to forget that not everyone shares in the good life. Despite the fact that unemployment in the ACT, at 2.9 per cent, is at its lowest in decades, if not the lowest ever, there are still vulnerable individuals and families suffering disadvantage. I am sure we all agree that one measure of a society’s compassion and general wellbeing is the way it cares for vulnerable people.
The release of the Canberra social plan by the ACT government in 2004 was a significant step forward in planning ways of addressing issues of poverty. The total commitment in the 2005-06 budget by this government to social plan initiatives amounts to $110 million over the next four years, with $79 million in capital works. The seven priorities and 64 actions in the social plan are aimed at addressing key social justice issues. A progress report on the social plan was released in August 2005. This highlights the level of achievement across many of the priorities and actions in the plan, including the opening of the Gungahlin child and family centre and the provision of energy concessions to over 26,000 households.
The community inclusion board was established in 2004 to provide additional advice and strategies for dealing with the causes of poverty. The board also includes a number of well-qualified non-government members. The community inclusion fund is one of the
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