Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting with Julianne O’Brien and Nyssa from Relationships Australia. Relationships Australia has a number of programs that operate on the Gold Coast as part of their better relationships program. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with them to discuss how they would put to use an additional funding of some $49,966 from the Howard government. This funding is provided to Relationships Australia under round 3 of the local answers initiative of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. I was very pleased to learn of the impressive work that Relationships Australia is undertaking at Palm Beach, Robina and the Gold Coast Hospital, as well as further north around Hope Island and Runaway Bay.

Impressively, Relationships Australia is working very closely with local Gold Coast families by offering relationship education groups to individuals who may not otherwise be able to access the kind of support and counselling that many people need, especially when they are welcoming a new member of the family after a birth. I was very pleased to hear about their partners to parents program—which works with people planning a family to anticipate the changes to their relationship that becoming parents can bring and to build skills to respond to these changes—as well as their Building Better Relationships program, a group based relationship education skills building program aimed at enhancing people’s relationships by building better skills. (Time expired)