Page 5134 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Support House. It was funded through the ACT festival funding, which was a very positive thing.
The festival showed great connectedness across our local community—with the school and all the community providers being there. I was pleased to be there as a local member of the community, as it is my home patch. I was pleased to be there as an MLA for Brindabella, but I was also pleased to be there as the Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services.
One of the stallholders there was the Tuggeranong Child and Family Centre. This centre offers a one-stop shop for a wide range of services, such as parenting information, family counselling and maternal and child services. These centres have strong links across the preschools, the primary schools and the childcare centres. That was evident in their participation in this Festival of Belonging.
As a new minister, I was able to go and see the department in action—to see the front-line working staff working with the community and to see how welcome they were. I saw firsthand the connections across the other providers, knowing the families. It was quite wonderful to see.
I go to some of the comments earlier in the week by those opposite who considered that the department was a light load. If anyone thinks that working with families, working with children and working across the community centre is a light load, I ask them to go and revisit their own portfolio—maybe turn the rock over and really look to see the depth and complexity of that.
As I said, the Richardson Festival of Belonging was the first one held this year. It was a wonderful event. It was good to see Aunty Agnes do a welcoming. We had Duncan and his family doing a smoking ceremony. Again it was really good to see local people coming together and helping each other.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 4.57 pm.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video