Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

He does stand up for his community. He is a very vigorous advocate of his community. There are many people sitting in here and around him right now who could learn a lesson from the persistent, vigorous advocacy engaged in by the member for Lyne on behalf of his community. Because of his vigorous persistent advocacy, Labor have agreed to invest $150,000 in a program to be undertaken by the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council to look at VET in his area, particularly at the low participation rates in his area. That is a longstanding problem. We obviously want to see people come through for higher qualifications.

The member for Lyne raised an issue of putting government services together. That is very important. We as a government are working our way through that. I would direct his attention to the ‘A stronger fairer Australia’ statement where a number of these things about whole-of-government responses and joined-up services, particularly for the most disadvantaged Australians, are canvassed. I would say to him: frankly, it is not easy. The silo mentality is very persistent. But we understand that families do not live in silos; they intersect with the world. And communities do not live in silos; they intersect with the world. This matter is certainly on our agenda and the details of that agenda are contained in the ‘fairer Australia’ statement. (Time expired)

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