Page 2539 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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range of services not just for youth but also for families, new mothers and those that are suffering other medical and mental health or substance abuse issues.
For the four years that I have been in this place the major topic has been building the capacity of this service both in the scope of service that they offer, and supporting that adequately, and also in their physical presence. For four years and beyond, even before my time, they have been lobbying those opposite for larger, more appropriate premises. But for whatever reason there has been no progress made in actually addressing the spatial constraints that exist in their current premises.
The other issue that has been, I guess, front of mind not just in this place but in parliaments across the country has been the idea behind Closing the gap—closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. And it seems not surprising that while we fail to meet the needs of and to support Indigenous organisations in this territory we continue to fail to meet our objectives in the Closing the gap recommendations.
Recently I met with Kim Davison, who is the Executive Director of Gugan Gulwan, and she described the current situation of Indigenous affairs in the ACT as a crisis. In correspondence she said:
Indigenous young people from our region for more than two decades now have experienced a crisis like that which we are currently confronted with. We are not resourced to be a crisis service but are a refuge of last resort for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and their families seeking help in the midst of a crisis.
For someone such as the executive director of Gugan to be referring to the state of Indigenous affairs in the ACT as a crisis should be a warning for all of us that things are not well within the local Indigenous community. I think it is incumbent on all of us, but particularly those opposite who are the executive, to take decisive action in addressing these needs and help to come up with solutions.
The solutions do not necessarily come from the cabinet deliberations that occur upstairs, from the brainstorms that those members opposite have, but come from working collaboratively with the Indigenous community, sitting down with them at the grassroots level, at the coalface, seeing what the problems are, seeing what they think will work. Any solutions to addressing the Indigenous issues that we see in the ACT needs to come from community. They will not come or originate necessarily from this place. But it is our responsibility to support community in achieving the outcomes.
A big part of that role can be played or should be played by the elected body. I would envisage that there should be also a larger focus on building the capacity of the elected body insofar as its outreach and also its engagement with community are concerned. It has been the facilitator for a lot of the discussion and the consultation that needs to happen between the executive, members of this place and the front line of community. It should work collaboratively with all involved and come up with the solutions that are required once and for all.
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