Page 845 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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Turning to the amendments, sadly and not surprisingly the government, while saying all the right words, omits the vital call to actually do something. To quote former Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, writing in the City News on the ACT government’s recently released ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2019-2028:
Unfortunately, the agreement is little more than a collection of platitudes while the “action plans” don’t actually contain any “actions” and, unlike the Liberal Party, the government has not committed any funding or resources …
Elsewhere he says:
In other words, Labor and the Greens are happy to talk about the matter but are not prepared to promise to do anything …
This could easily apply to the government’s response to my motion. They want to be seen as sympathetic and helpful, but without a financial commitment or a time frame or concrete action they remain just words and vague aspirational commitments. This is disappointing. What is also disappointing, and yet unsurprising, is the Greens’ refusal to support my motion after again saying all the right things and condescendingly patting me on the back for my well-intentioned motion. I have said before and I will say again, Ms Le Couteur, thanks for your sympathy; I would much rather have your vote, which will actually make a difference.
All parties have agreed that more needs to be done. All parties have agreed that we have members of the CALD community living with a disability who are falling through the gaps. The government’s amendment calls on the government to:
… ensure that disability advocacy, inclusion and multicultural participation grants are able to support the needs of Canberrans from a CALD background living with a disability.
Seemingly this is admitting that the government is failing to do just that. But is this not the core duty—what a government should do to ensure that vulnerable members of our community are not falling through the gaps?
The Canberra Liberals will not be supporting the amendment. It is calling on the government to do something that it should clearly be doing as a matter of course for any government. There is no accountability, no provision to report back, no time frame, no additional resources and no concrete action to achieve a difference.
As for the minister saying that it is inappropriate for the Assembly to call on the government to commit funds to something as important as this, I do not even understand where that comes from. If it were inappropriate for non-executive members to call on the government to fund something then surely the majority of private members’ motions would be inappropriate. After all, everything has budget implications. So let us call it what it is: an easy cop-out.
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