Page 1960 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017
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Moving forward, it is important to provide as much certainty as possible about what services the facility will offer, details of the model of care and when services are expected to commence. I appreciate the minister's commitment to providing information to the Assembly in relation to the lease and the relevant uses for the site under the territory plan in such a timely manner. I also look forward to further details about the model of care and the estimated commencement date by the end of September.
It is important that in having this conversation we do not default to applying a deficit lens to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Struggles with drug and alcohol addiction are not unique to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Ngunnawal bush healing farm is being established to offer assistance to break the cycle of addiction for individuals who are likely to have experienced entrenched disadvantage. The facility is being established with this context in mind and to provide services that are culturally appropriate and relevant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Developing a service model that is led and controlled by Indigenous providers will have the greatest chance of success. We must continue to listen to Indigenous voices in order for this project to progress and become a true place of healing and wellbeing. This is certainly something I am mindful of in other spaces within my portfolio where we have just launched a justice reinvestment partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah healthcare service. That is an example of where we have sought to work with the community to implement their views on what will be effective.
These are challenging projects. We have now received a recommendation through the Moss review that Winnunga operate health services inside the AMC. The merits of this are very clear, but we also need to be mindful of government accountability and government responsibility for these projects. At the end of the day it will be the minister who will be called on by the opposition to answer for it if something goes wrong. That is where in putting these partnerships together we need to work very carefully to give as much freedom as possible to the community providers but also ensure that the accountability—which tends to be held by the minister—lines are right. We must allow enough innovation and enough freedom to try new things but provide enough frameworks of accountability.
I appreciate the minister’s very clear comments that it is important that we do not pit sections of the community against each other in pursuit of a shared cause. There may well be some differing views in our local Indigenous community as to the final model of care and program direction of the healing farm, but it is ultimately the government who has access to the various directorates’ policy units, corporate history of the developments and resources to allocate towards research and exploration of best practice guidelines. I welcome the minister’s very clear articulation of that today, and I think it is very important that we acknowledge that today.
Last week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 constitutional referendum and the 25th anniversary of the Mabo decision, two historic moments that recognised
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