Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today for two very important reasons: to bring to the attention of the House the important work being undertaken at the Pathways for Families Centre at Hackham and to thank the Minister for Families and Community Services, the Hon. Mal Brough, for visiting the centre last week and agreeing to review the funding in an attempt to ensure the centre’s future. Since its inception the centre has been funded under the Howard government’s Local Answers program. The centre has provided all kinds of desperately needed services to the local area. In addition to running play groups for babies and toddlers, the centre provides courses for fathers to teach them how to play a much more constructive role in their children’s lives and brings fathers together to help support each other. The centre provides a series of courses for mothers as well, including a course entitled ‘What about Mum’, which reminds mothers about the importance of looking after themselves.

The centre provides a variety of personal development initiatives which enable parents to access educational programs they would not otherwise have access to. For example, last week I spoke with a man at the centre who had undertaken the Dad Factor course and has now completed a communication skills course which qualified him to the same level as a certificate III at TAFE. The centre assists parents who have been out of the workforce for a considerable period while raising their children to think about re-entering the workforce and to undertake training to assist them in making the transition. During all of these courses, the centre provides child care and a family-friendly atmosphere. We cannot underestimate the work being undertaken at this centre. A large proportion of the work is done by volunteers who have seen the work being done by the centre and are now giving their time in order for the services to continue and expand.

The centre was initially funded under the Howard government’s Local Answers program, which provided funding to organisations for a period of no more than four years. The idea behind the funding was that organisations would be given four years to address a particular social issue and then shift their focus to another problem or area. The difficulty with the Pathways centre is that it has been so successful and the problems it is addressing simply cannot be solved in four years. The problems have evolved over generations and will take time to fix.

When I first became aware of the plight of the centre and the fact that it faced a funding cut at the completion of its four years, I immediately got in contact with the centre and began speaking with my colleagues, in particular with the minister, Mal Brough. Fortunately, the minister was very interested in the work being conducted at the centre and, in particular, the results being achieved there. As a result I was fortunate to secure a commitment from the minister to come to my electorate and to visit the centre, which he did last Thursday.

In fact, this was a similar issue also for the Hackham West Community Centre and the Christie Downs Community Centre, who the minister also met with. During the visit the minister agreed to have another look at the Local Answers model and at funding for the Pathways centre. At this point, I would like to thank the minister, the Hon. Mal Brough, for coming to the electorate. It cannot be easy to go into a centre that has received funding and know that the people in attendance will invariably question why they are no longer able to receive it. However, Minister Brough spoke openly and frankly with the staff and clients and was genuine in his responses and understanding. I commend him not only for agreeing to visit my electorate and the Pathways centre under difficult circumstances but also for embracing my constituents and their concerns so openly.

We cannot underestimate the impact that parenting and, in particular, bad or antisocial parenting has on our children. As we see increases in teenage drug abuse, youth suicide, teenage runaways and general antisocial behaviour, we must stop to consider why so many of our young people are heading down these paths. In my former occupation as a police officer, I saw first-hand the impact that parenting has on a child’s future. At times I would arrest a young person for a crime such as stealing a car, only to look at their surname and, unfortunately, recall arresting their father for the same crime a few years earlier.

Raising children is a difficult task—I have two of them myself and I know first-hand that raising children is without doubt the toughest job any of us will do in our lifetime. The Pathways centre at Hackham, along with the Christie Downs and Hackham West centres, are trying to make that job a little easier and are getting results. Each centre creates better parents and, in so doing, creates better futures for their children.

The most important point I make today is simply that these centres are getting results. All that anyone has to do is go to the centres and speak with the people who use them, as the minister did last week, to realise the enormous results being obtained. From the father at the Pathways centre who no longer yells at his wife and kids to the mother who was able to overcome post-natal depression and serious self-esteem issues and has now obtained a qualification and returned to the centre as a volunteer while looking for work, this centre is making a massive difference in people’s lives and must be allowed to continue making that difference.

To date the South Australian government, while sending a representative to all the meetings and happily criticising the federal government for not finding more funding, has remained silent when it comes to putting money into this project. The new state Labor member for Mawson, Leon Bignell, attended one meeting and quite happily made negative comments about me and this government, even personally attacking our Prime Minister. However, when approached by a local journalist last week and asked if the state government would assist the centre, he simply commented that there was nothing he could do.

Families and their children’s future may not be on the agenda of the South Australian Labor government, but they are certainly on the agenda of the Howard government. While the local member for Mawson, Leon Bignell, and his Minister for Families and Communities, Jay Weatherill, may sit back with their arms folded and claim there is nothing they can do, this government has a Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs who will do something.

The Howard government’s Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, unlike his South Australian counterparts, is interested not in media headlines but in outcomes—in results for our children and our grandchildren and for the future of this nation. I am confident that, if the local member keeps sitting back blindly supporting a government and policies which ignore the southern suburbs, the constituents of Mawson will be using their vote at the next state election to unseat Leon Bignell, who is supporting his Labor government all the way in ignoring the plight of this centre and the families it serves.

In closing, other than those made by the minister last week, I can make no promises to the people of the south who desperately rely on this service other than to promise them that I will do all I can to assist them in their fight to keep their centre open, as I did last week in requesting and ensuring Minister Brough’s presence at the Pathway’s centre. I will be their loudest advocate in Canberra.

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