Page 784 - Week 02 - Thursday, 12 February 2009
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The Prime Minister has foreshadowed and acknowledged that the next step in the government’s response, presuming the $42 billion stimulus package is supported, or supported in the broad and implemented, is for us to begin to look very hard and urgently at labour force programs and at programs to support the unemployed. He has foreshadowed that at this stage he expects that the commonwealth will be responding to that next major priority or imperative—a recognition that our unemployment rates across the nation will almost certainly double in the next 12 years.
We need to have the capacity to support that doubling of the number of unemployed across the nation with all the implications of that. I think this goes very much to the heart of the matter of public importance that Ms Bresnan has proposed today. I refer to the need to ensure that we as a community, particularly in the context of our reliance on the community sector to support people within our community that live in straitened circumstances—those that are unemployed, those that have issues in their personal lives and with life. We as a government, as an Assembly, must support our community sector to support the growing number of Canberrans that we know will be in serious and straitened circumstances over and above those that are already there.
We do need the capacity, and we must remain mindful of our obligations to them. We must always be conscious of the central role which the community sector plays in delivering those support services to people within our communities who do need support. I thank Ms Bresnan for the matter of public importance. It is critically important in these times and I am very happy to contribute to the debate.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.34): I thank Ms Bresnan for bringing forward this serious matter of importance today because in times of financial crisis our community services, particularly those which are community based, are stretched to the limit. Services that we cannot do without, such as Lifeline, the Salvos and Vinnies, have to cope with a heightened level of demand. Just recently, for example, we have heard that Lifeline is calling for more volunteers to help with its telephone counselling, with increasing demands on its telephone counselling services. Organisations such as Care Inc Financial Counselling Services also must find increased resources to meet the needs of so many people who will run into financial problems as the global financial crisis gets worse. And as unemployment will inevitably rise, these services are going to be stretched even more.
Our community-based community services do amazing work, helping every sector of the community from babies and toddlers to the frail aged and kids at risk to families in crisis, from people with disabilities to those who sleep on the streets. One of the reasons community-based community service organisations are able to do what they do with paltry financial resources and with staff who contribute so much above and beyond the call of duty is the legion upon legion of volunteers who assist them and give of their time and their skills.
Canberra is blessed with thousands of volunteers who contribute hundreds of thousands of hours of their time every year. They are the backbone of all our community organisations and make happen what otherwise would not happen. We have seen volunteers spring to the needs of our community so many times and in so many different ways. In this time of the horrific bushfires in Victoria, for example, we
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