Page 2948 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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waterways and make more water available for urban use. The government is working with all schools to improve water efficiency through its sustainable schools program. We are considering a range of recommendations put to us by Actew, including enlargement of the Cotter Dam, water purification and the purchase of water from Tantangara Dam in New South Wales.
In order to highlight the government’s vision for social development of the ACT and measure whether the objectives of the Canberra social plan are being met, the government established flagship commitments and set a number of long-term targets. Three and a half years is not much time for major shifts within a community; it was always envisaged that the achievement of our goals and priorities would be accomplished in the long term, over 10 to 15 years. Nevertheless, the progress report notes what changes have occurred against these commitments and targets since the launch of the plan in February 2004.
A key flagship commitment in the social plan is to establish child and family centres with a strong focus on integrated services for children and young families. I am pleased to report that our child and family centres are providing specialised local services with a focus on support and early intervention, including health, education, parenting and family support services. These services are being delivered in partnership with community organisations and professionals. The Gungahlin child and family centre began delivering services to the community in September 2004, with permanent premises opened in May 2006. The program was extended to Tuggeranong in 2005; a purpose-built centre has recently been completed there as well.
This government made a commitment to ease the financial pressure faced by low income households in the payment of their essential services bills. This government has provided additional funding of $1.6 million since 2004 to increase energy, water and sewerage concessions and ensure as much as possible that individuals and families on low incomes are not adversely affected by utility price increases. More than 26,000 low income households have benefited from the new streamlined energy concession. The Community Inclusion Board is looking at further steps that can be taken to assist those on low incomes with the cost of their essential services.
The government has set itself the target of reducing the level of long-term unemployment to 12.5 per cent of total unemployment by 2013. I can report that the absolute number of long-term unemployed in the ACT has progressively fallen over recent years, to around 800 people. The numbers are small and the data subject to significant sampling errors, but a significant downward trend is clearly apparent. Despite this, by virtue of the equally significant recent falls in total unemployment, the percentage of long-term unemployed to total unemployed has been fluctuating just above or below the 12.5 per cent target.
The government has set itself the target of reducing income inequality. In this respect, the adopted measure, the Gini coefficient, is useful but must be treated with caution. In the short term, the coefficient is unlikely to be sensitive to measures introduced under the Canberra social plan, and has held relatively steady, between 0.26 and 0.27, since the introduction of the Canberra social plan. The ACT retains its place as having one of the most equal distributions of income in Australia.
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