Page 3226 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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will be providing support to the local community. We are currently in negotiations with a range of existing community service providers who are experiencing an increase in demand for services. Those providers are made up of a number of groups who have formed the ACT LGBTIQ community consortium. They will be provided with additional support to provide counselling, support materials and referral pathways.
We are also working with the ACT Human Rights Commission and ACT Policing to ensure that we can promote awareness of appropriate criminal and complaints processes under ACT law. During the postal vote process, the office of LGBTIQ affairs will coordinate and manage community engagement activities relating to the promotion of Canberra as an LGBTIQ inclusive and diverse community.
The ACT government regularly engages with the Canberra community on inclusion issues. We have a range of initiatives, from the National Multicultural Festival to NAIDOC Week and the ACT inclusion awards, all of which promote a sense of community and bring us together. Promoting contributions of LGBTIQ Canberrans during the postal vote survey process and the 2017 SpringOUT Pride Festival continues this approach to community inclusion.
The exact financial contributions will be finalised in due course, but I would draw Ms Le Couteur’s attention to the allocations in this year’s budget. (Time expired.)
MS LE COUTEUR: Is the ACT government able to provide support to the postal survey by providing contact points for the ABS to contact homeless people in places such as the Early Morning Centre or St Vincent de Paul’s night patrol?
MR BARR: Yes, we will endeavour to work with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to ensure that those of no fixed address are able to participate in the voluntary, non-binding postal survey. This is clearly an appalling process for seeking to find the community’s views on this matter. It is hurtful and divisive, and it excludes a large number of Australians from participating.
The logistical challenges for the Australian Bureau of Statistics to conduct this survey are enormous, and they are regularly seeking support from other areas of government in order to undertake this task. They have recently updated their website, and are still at this point, even a few weeks away from this survey beginning, yet to announce how they will engage or seek to engage with people of no fixed address. They are barely able to address the issues of silent enrolees, and most Australians who live overseas are going to be excluded from this process. It is a farce, and it is an incredibly poor reflection on the Australian government, particularly, who have done this without any parliamentary approval.
MR STEEL: Chief Minister, how does the support being provided during the postal survey period fit in with the government’s existing policy of making Canberra a LGBTIQ-friendly city?
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