Page 868 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 18 March 2015
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When it comes to social inclusion, we will regularly be faced with challenges, new and old. In Labor’s view, there will always be an important role for government in enabling an environment of growth and opportunity so that all Canberrans can be included and fulfil their potential.
I would like to reflect more specifically on Labor’s agenda and record investment in my own community of Gungahlin. As we know, Gungahlin is Canberra’s latest pioneering region, growing and evolving rapidly, and now home to some 47,000 Canberrans. It is a diverse community with people from many different backgrounds. It is a community that is diverse by age, with the full range of housing needs that come with that, from young families to the aged. In the beginning, there were no schools, no roads, no shopping centres and no recreational facilities. However, in the past 10 years in particular this Labor government has invested significantly in high quality community and public infrastructure. This investment has provided community and public spaces and facilities which have at their heart bringing people together, providing the physical and built environments to promote inclusion and connect our community.
The government and community recognise that every student has a right to receive the best possible education irrespective of their ability, behaviour, background or the challenges they and their families face. In Gungahlin we have seen extraordinary investment in schools to accommodate a fast-growing population. In recent years we have seen the opening of the Franklin Early Childhood School, the Neville Bonner Primary School and the P-10 schools at Amaroo and Harrison, teaching children from their very first school experiences all the way through until they move on to college. Then we go to Gungahlin College, educating nearly 900 of Gungahlin’s teenagers as they arrive at the end of their secondary education journey and step into adulthood. We also have three Catholic primary schools, and the new Catholic high schools, with John Paul College, as well as the two campuses of Burgmann college. All these schools, government and non-government, are vital to educating young people in Gungahlin, making sure they have the skills and knowledge they need to reach their potential but, just as importantly, the qualities of inclusion, fairness, tolerance and kindness.
In Gungahlin we also have a vital community services and health precinct in the town centre, with the Gungahlin Community Health Centre, the Child and Family Centre, Communities@Work and Centrelink in close proximity to one another, providing a well-connected hub of services to help those most in need.
Housing is also a vital component of social inclusion. Housing in all its forms is a priority of this government, from the affordable housing action plan to renewal of our public housing stock and our efforts to combat homelessness. As we all know, not having a safe and secure home is much more than a housing issue. Homelessness can occur as a result of domestic violence, poor health, unemployment or poverty, and it leads to poor social and economic outcomes for people and our community. Homelessness makes it difficult for people to access a whole range of services and can break the connections with the wider world that the rest of us take for granted. Members have often spoken here about the common ground model to tackle homelessness, and I look forward to the opening of the ACT’s first common ground project in the Gungahlin town centre soon.
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