Page 1811 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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matters. Neighbourhood Watch has been discussed at some length today. A group of people who are engaged community members would have, I think, a lot of valuable local information to add. They may or may not take up the invitation at every forum, but it would be a sensible move to at least invite them along. I would urge the government to consider this and support this amendment to the motion.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (5.25): We support Mr Rattenbury’s amendment. I foreshadow that I have one further amendment to make. It has not been circulated and I apologise. There is a motion in my name calling on the government to recommit to reassessing the $20,000 per annum funding commitment to Neighbourhood Watch as the organisation and its requirements grow into the future.
Amendment agreed to.
Motion (by Mr Doszpot), by leave, proposed:
Add:
“(4) calls on the Government to commit to reassessing the $20 000 per annum funding commitment to Neighbourhood Watch as the organisation and its requirements grow into the future.”.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.27): The Greens will be supporting Mr Doszpot’s amendment. What Mr Doszpot’s amendment recognises, and we support this, is that the government has committed $20,000 a year of funding to the Neighbourhood Watch program. As Ms Burch said in her speech earlier—I was not aware, but she mentioned this—there seems to be some level of indexation attached to that.
However, what we know is that, through the energy of new members, Neighbourhood Watch is growing. There seems to be a new enthusiasm being injected into the organisation. As the organisation expands it may well be that some additional funds from the government will enable it to do an even better job than it is already doing and that perhaps an extra bit of money here or there might provide the critical mass to enable Neighbourhood Watch to simply do something even more innovative in the community.
It is important—and Mr Doszpot’s amendment picks up this point—that the government keep an open mind to reconsidering the level of funding that it is giving to Neighbourhood Watch because it may be that, over the next couple of years, $20,000 is simply not enough. The amendment does not seek to commit the government to a specific amount of money. It simply seeks to have the government commit to reassessing that funding and keeping an open mind as to whether some greater level of funding may be called for in the future. I think this is a good thing to do. It is an important point that Mr Doszpot is making in his amendment because of the growth that we are seeing in the Neighbourhood Watch program. I welcome Mr Doszpot’s amendment. The Greens will be supporting it.
Amendment agreed to.
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