Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I at the outset mention the presence of Andrew Hunter from Sir Joseph Banks High School, Revesby, and Peter Spinner from Rockhampton SHS who are part of an Indigenous students program with myself and many other MPs who have taken up that office. They have just missed out by a few seconds on hearing a contribution from the member for Hasluck, who is the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives. So it is great that this program can occur and that many MPs can participate on both sides of politics.

I am not surprised that the member for Banks is the person sponsoring this resolution. We all claim to be fairly close to our electorates, but he is—as president of the Revesby Workers Club, in his intimate involvement with the Bankstown Cricket Club, as a strong adherent of the Western Suburbs Balmain Tigers and involved in local Catholic parish activities—very close to non-government community organisations in his electorate. I want to join with him in supporting this resolution.

The American sociologist Robert Putnam is the acknowledged expert in regard to community organisations, the breakdown of communities and the challenges in making sure that they exist. I noticed in the last week or so, just coincidentally, he is co-authoring another publication which is about to hit the bookshops. He has written about the breakdown of society—the fact that Lions clubs, Elks in the US, tenpin bowling clubs he was once a member of et cetera have all declined.

We know in Australia, whether it is Rotary, Lions, local churches, or people that formerly did tuck shops where now we have to pay contractors to do that in every second school around the country, or whether it is on weekends in regard to sporting organisations and getting people to train or to run down the sidelines putting down those lines and running canteens there, it is extremely difficult. It is all the more necessary that we recognise community organisations that are still struggling to fulfil these requirements of society.

I should say in passing that in my old electorate at the weekend I went to the centenary of Granville scouts, which was the second earliest established in this country and probably the longest continuing. To see those people, through various ups and downs, various struggles, very strong retractions of memberships and the disappearance of people from the community, still persist is a great thing.

I want to turn to the electorate of Werriwa and mention a few organisations that are doing what the member for Banks indicates in his motion and which are, as I say, so necessary for society. Break the Cycle, Macquarie Fields, provides effective assistance to people in crisis/need/hardship by providing assistance with electricity and gas bills, no interest loans and counselling. Beautiful Minds, Ingleburn—and I have met the main organiser of this group—are doing active work to provide intensive support to people suffering a mental illness through the Day 2 Day Living Program. Most particularly, they are focused on schizophrenia.

People in New South Wales would be fairly aware of Odyssey House, Ingleburn. I am not sure whether it is national. It assists participating individuals to overcome their dependencies upon harmful external agents by empowering them through the concept of self-help and the ability to integrate. I have had the opportunity to be there, see the graduates of their courses—people who were indeed very challenged but have come through the program and some of them now are out there assisting new students. It is tremendous to see what they have accomplished with education and employment as a result of the efforts of Odyssey House.

AFFORD, Prestons, is a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to helping people with a disability. They provide community participation programs, skills development, transition to work, training, supported and open employment, respite and accommodation to their clients. Over 500 people with disability work at their five factories. Of course, many of us are aware of the abysmal management that led to the failure of another company in the sector, Cumberland Industries, which certainly caused a major crisis in this field over the last few years.

PCYC—the Police and Community Youth Club—at Minto works with young people to get them active in life. They provide activities both sporting and recreational as well is offering programs and opportunities for participants to develop skills. I note in the past the conduct of a variety of Department of Immigration and Citizenship funded programs out there as well, basically working with the police to have young people who have come to their attention participate in trips away, building their confidence and their interaction with others. That is one of the many programs that operate out of there, and I congratulate the police who give their time towards it.

Macarthur Diversity Services, while their name might not imply it, are essentially what was previously a migrant resource centre. They provide an integrated delivery system. Programs are specifically tailored to meet the needs of the community through four broad service areas: child, family, youth and aged. They offer a selection of 13 settlement and community services in over 15 community languages from over 18 cultural backgrounds. They have volunteers fluent in 14 languages and 20 cultural backgrounds. Once again, I have been active with them in trying to get them access to electricity and the rights to distribute those passes. I still question the continued decision of the department federally to not make them a provider, as they certainly have close contact with the community and are on the ground in a very real sense.

The final group I want to talk about, and I went to their 11th anniversary last week, is Macarthur NILS—No Interest Loan Scheme. They were established in 1998 by the Presentation Sisters out of Wagga, believe it or not. They receive significant help from NAB, the Catholic Club at Campbelltown and St Vincent de Paul, who I understand provide office space. A lot of people have been very instrumental down the line, including Father Kevin Goode, Jan St John, Jenny Shepherd and Sister Noela Fox, who wrote their history, which was launched last week along with their new website.

I am getting correspondence from these payday lenders at the moment, concerned about the threat of government action to restrict their interest rates. This has happened in a number of states already. I am quite supportive of any legislative endeavour to do something about this and quite frankly prefer very strongly community based organisations such as this No Interest Loans group. It is impressive to note that this group have received a large overdraft and have measurably increased the number of loans that they provide locally. These loans allow people to obtain white goods in particular. At the same time, they are educated about how to manage money. This gives them confidence and the ability to interact with others and gets them into a habit of repaying loans.

The member for Banks's motion is commendable, as it makes sure that groups locally are recognised. I finally mention Myrtle Cottage, a community based organisation providing activities for frail aged people and younger people with disabilities and respite care for people with dementia.

One of the things I noticed in moving quite a few suburbs in Sydney, from the Reid electorate to the Werriwa electorate, was the enormous presence of disability organisations in the Werriwa electorate. In 20 years as the member for Reid, if I was invited to one disability organisation event a year, it would have been a big year. In Werriwa this year there will probably be about 30 fundraisers just in the disability sector. The area is characterised by a high presence of community workers, volunteers and family carers—people who really give a lot in this sector. It reflects to some degree the housing department presence in the region but also, as I have said in this House before, perhaps a stronger inclination by Anglo-Saxons not to hide these problems or think that they are some kind of stigma and to be more open about disability.

All of those organisations are doing worthwhile work. I can talk about groups—particularly in the Bangladeshi community—that run language schools on weekends. These do not just happen out of the air. It requires people to do the booking, get the teachers and make sure they have significant enrolments. All these groups provide services where there is otherwise a gap in society, a vacuum. I think all sides of this House would join very strongly in commending them.

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