Page 2880 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but my advice is that, given that Ms Gallagher’s amendment changes the whole motion, if you want to amend hers you should probably do it now.
Mrs Dunne: Yes. I am just trying to work out how to do that on the fly.
MR SPEAKER: All right. We will leave it for now. I am sure the Assembly will give you leave when you have considered that, and we will come back to it.
Mrs Dunne: Thank you for your advice, Mr Speaker.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (5.49): I will talk a little about what social procurement and social ventures actually mean, and I hope Mrs Dunne listens to my speech so that she can learn something about them. The concept of social procurement and enterprises, or social firms or ventures as they are also known, is not a new one. The social firm model originated in Italy in the 1960s and is now common across many countries, including most Australian states and territories.
Victoria has been the leader in the area, and there are well-established businesses that operate on a social venture model. New South Wales has well-established social ventures. Brisbane is a particular example. The Brisbane City Council established a social enterprise hub in 2007, following a pilot program in 2006, and in 2009 the hub was expanded to include Logan and Ipswich city councils. Each of those councils actually practises social procurement processes. The Brisbane hub has over 40 social enterprises. Of course the ACT has a social enterprise hub.
I will acknowledge now the work of Mandy Richards in establishing and managing the ACT Social Enterprise Hub. Her commitment to creating employment opportunities for people with a disability and for people who are disadvantaged is the key reason for the hub’s success. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Social Ventures Australia, who have already been mentioned today, on being a partner in the ACT Social Enterprise Hub and on running the information sessions on social ventures in the ACT, which the Chief Minister mentioned. Other partners in the ACT hub include PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Snow Foundation, the Mental Health Community Coalition and the ACT agencies ACT Health and the disability, housing and community services directorate.
Social enterprises are businesses that trade for a social purpose. There are numerous definitions of social enterprise throughout the world and it is a much-contested term. Social Ventures Australia describes social enterprises as having the following characteristics:
explicit social aims
commercial orientation—
an important point to make—
social ownership
social accountability …
use of profits for community benefit
socially inclusive values base
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