Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a question for the minister, but, Minister, I want to give you a little bit of background on two organisations before I refer my question to you. One of the organisations I wish to talk about is Heartfelt House, an organisation that sits in my electorate between the centres of Lismore and Ballina, which does 18-week non-residential courses for adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse. I think probably everyone in this chamber would agree that one of the greatest, if not the greatest, dysfunctions we have in our community and in our society is that, and that we have to help and try and heal adults who were victims of childhood sexual abuse. We have had many reports of that in the media over far too many years.

I have worked with Vicki and Heidi, who run Heartfelt House, over many years, and I have met many of the participants of the non-residential courses that they do and have read stories of others. There would not be a person in this country who would not be touched and affected by some of the stories that you hear. Vicki and Heidi are two very special people, and they have a great network of volunteers in our community who help them. There would also be very few service clubs in my community that do not fundraise for and help out Heartfelt House in what they do.

The reason that I believe a community organisation like this needs to be supported is the result once people come out the other side of the courses that Heartfelt House offer. The life improvements of many of the participants of these courses is profound. I have met women who have said that the first time that they have been able to attract and maintain a healthy relationship with a member of the opposite sex was after they did one of these courses. We have also had people who have basically said that they were released from a prison—their own mental or psychological prison—by the fact that they participated in the courses run by Heartfelt House.

So that is a bit of background on the organisation. The work they do is important. They are now also looking to extend what they do, to men's programs. To date they have run a few men's programs, just off where they operate, but they are also looking to work and to do the courses and the healing work that they do with men, who, obviously, can also be victims of childhood sexual abuse. So that is one organisation.

The other organisation I want to mention to you, Minister, is the Ballina-Byron Family Centre. This, again, is a great organisation. One of the programs that they have that I am very familiar with is the Fella's Family Project, which very much works with people on parenting and relationship skills. They work with expectant fathers on their self-esteem and also with boys between the ages of 11 and 16 on relationship skills. They do many things: home visits for one-on-one support, parenting programs and support groups, and they provide information and do advocacy and referral work. Much mentoring is done. There is one-on-one support. There are individual and group programs and activities. There is information and, as I said, referral. There are also recreation and leisure-based activities.

So, Minister, given the background of those two organisations, could you please advise how community organisations across Australia such as Heartfelt House and the Ballina-Byron Family Centre are being assisted with funding under the DSS grants scheme, to ensure—and we obviously know this—that we do not have any gaps in frontline community services.

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