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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:48): I rise today to acknowledge the work of the South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS), and to draw attention to an important series of principles papers it has released this month. The first five of these papers are targeted squarely at politicians, political parties and policy makers, in particular, in the lead up to the next state election. The first SACOSS principles paper deals with the topic of child protection, with the subheading 'Shift the focus to child health and well-being'. SACOSS points out in this paper the following:

It is clear that the current model of child protection in South Australia is unable to effectively address the current burgeoning need, nor is it effective in stemming the incidence of abuse in the community. Our child protection system has relied too long on a crisis medical model, which places the bulk of scarce resources at the tertiary end of the continuum, with scant regard for prevention or early intervention strategies.

The paper goes on to advocate a public health model for child health and wellbeing, which focuses more on helping to keep children healthy and safe in the community rather than simply dealing with crises as they emerge.

The second paper deals with the topic of concessions, and SACOSS is urging a shift in the focus towards equity. It points out that, when it comes to state government concessions for things like utilities such as energy, the current system is not fair. SACOSS points out that a person with a federal government pensioner concession or health care card can be eligible for state government concessions, but those who are on a low income health care card are not. That means that a single person on a low income of $892 per fortnight is ineligible for an energy concession, whereas a single disability pensioner with an income of up to $1,557 per fortnight or a self-funded retiree with an income of up to $1,920 per fortnight are both eligible for a flat rate energy concession. Clearly, a lot of work is needed to ensure that concessions, whether they be for energy, other utilities or transport, are well targeted.

The third paper is an important one and it relates to housing, and SACOSS is urging a shift in the focus to access and affordability. It makes the important point in this paper that it is not only about refurbishing existing homes or adding new housing stock but you also need to build communities. Constructing communities, it says, allows for greater social participation to be achieved by individuals who often experience detrimental effects such as social exclusion as a consequence of unaffordable housing and housing stress. That ties in with debates we are currently having in relation to outer metro housing estates such as Buckland Park, where the attention is all on low income bricks and mortar and not on the community that supports the future residents.

In relation to law and justice, SACOSS again urges a shift to crime prevention, and it bemoans the path that South Australia and other states have gone down in developing and maintaining a punitive criminal justice system, rather than any system that is aimed at keeping communities safer, rehabilitating prisoners or reducing recidivism rates. The final paper released this week relates to jobs and employment, and social infrastructure in general. It makes the point that, with the looming social, environmental and economic crisis facing us, the move to a less carbon intensive green economy is the direction in which we should be heading.

My purpose for raising these documents today is to commend them to all members. We are some eight or nine months out from the next election, and members could do worse than start with these five position papers to help formulate positions for the next election.

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