Page 3069 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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continue family group conferencing, will go some way to building that trust. The fact that the family group conferencing work is being led by an Aboriginal controlled organisation I think is an important element of its potential success. Last year I spoke about the need to build trust and reminded us all of the words of an Aboriginal Canberran who said, “We will move at the speed of trust.”
I believe that this trust is building as we go forward. It is not easy. Through my portfolio areas, we have worked on a number of projects such as having Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Community and Health Services deliver health services within the AMC. This is not being done anywhere else in Australia, and it would be fair to say that it has not been without challenges. Trying to do something like this the first time is always hard. A deficit of trust has been one of the challenges in working through a workable solution and getting to a place that we all want to get to. But over time that trust will build; I am optimistic that that will be the case.
Yarrabi Bamirr, a project which is also being delivered in partnership with Winnunga, is another one where it took some time to find and design the model that we wanted to run. Different people had different ideas on it. But through a process of working together and building trust we have made progress there as well and I think that the evaluation of that program will show that it has had an important impact.
I note that the budget also allocates funds for the implementation of the ACT strategic priorities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health 2019-28. These priorities aim to drive better health, wellbeing and quality of life outcomes and to address health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans and other Australians. It is my hope that these investments will contribute to reducing these inequalities.
I am pleased to see a commitment from the government to co-design and plan an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alcohol and drug residential rehabilitation facility to complement existing services including the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm. It goes without saying that the development of this culturally appropriate residential facility must be enabled by a commitment to investment in capital and operational funding in future years and must be enabled by truly listening to and embracing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice about what is needed. We do not need a repeat of the loss of trust that resulted from the unfortunate lack of clear communication about the healing farm. That has been canvassed in this place and clearly there was misunderstanding and miscommunication there. Hopefully we can learn some lessons from that and do better in the future.
As I have touched on in my earlier remarks, there is some really important investment in my own portfolio areas of justice and corrections. It goes without saying that I am deeply committed to justice reinvestment and to reducing recidivism for all Canberrans. But I know that this will have particular significance for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, because of their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Funding of the circle sentencing courts, expansion of bail support programs and investment in justice housing are all ways to assist with reducing the number of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the criminal justice system.
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