Page 2362 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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This is a necessary step to ensure that future funds are directed where they are needed most and so we can break down the reasons for such a continuation in poor outcomes for health, housing, education and justice for our Indigenous community.
A subject of note is the requirements for some organisations in the Indigenous space, such as Gugan Gulwan Aboriginal Youth Corporation. Gugan Gulwan provide a place for the Indigenous community to gather. They provide services for youth and families along with a number of outreach programs aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT. The organisation have outgrown their current premises in Wanniassa and continue to be in desperate need of additional space. I am pleased to note that the ACT government is of the same view and that options are being explored in consultation with the organisation.
Providing services that focus on assisting the territory’s Indigenous residents in a culturally appropriate manner is critical to ensuring the continual trend of Indigenous disadvantage does in fact end. Programs and services targeting Indigenous youth provide an opportunity to break the cycle of disadvantage, and Gugan Gulwan, as the major provider of Indigenous youth services, should be given a high priority when it comes to assistance.
I mention the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body and the elections that have recently taken place. While there has been an improvement on voter turnout from the previous election as a result of some of the legislative changes made to increase participation, I believe there is still some way to go in increasing the votes. This year’s election participation totalled around 377 voters, which continues to be representative of only a very small portion of the ACT’s Indigenous community.
I congratulate the newly elected members of the body: Rod Little, Fred Monaghan, Dianne Collins, Jo Chivers, Jo Donovan, Maurice Walker and Ross Fowler. But I also remind them that it is dependent upon them in their new roles to ensure that the current elected body continues to build the support of the broader Indigenous community through engagement activities with the idea of, hopefully one day, having full participation in their elections by the Indigenous community.
The youth portfolio is where I will finish. During the estimates hearings, the committee heard from the Youth Coalition as they raised a number of concerns relating to youth, in particular, the outreach model of youth services. I remain of the view that youth services need to be a mix of outreach and centre-based activities to be truly effective in the ACT. Without somewhere to provide the services of outreach from, it is difficult for youth to know where to turn to when they may need help.
I fully endorse the estimates committee’s report in recommendation number 28:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government initiate an independent review of the closure of youth centres and its replacement outreach program to determine the effectiveness of the changes and report to the Legislative Assembly by the last sitting day of February 2015.
Having not yet had the opportunity to look at the government’s response, I hope that, in fact, that was accepted.
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