Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Saturday I had the privilege of opening the NAIDOC festivities in Lowood in my electorate. I commend the Somerset Regional Council for their initiative. Last year was the first occasion on which they held those festivities to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Jagera people. I was very pleased to be there and observe the great work done by the Kambu Medical Centre across the Ipswich and Somerset region and, in particular Lillian Garrett, the Manager of the Ipswich Children and Family Centre, a great organisation that provides mums and bubs programs and other types of programs for sexual health and dad training programs as well, particularly dads who need parenting skills in dysfunctional families. Sadly, in the current budget the coalition has cut the funding for that program. It was a $564 billion program that in government we announced through Minister Macklin and Minister Garrett. I have been to a number of them across the country—from Fitzroy Crossing to northern Melbourne, to Bridgwater in Tasmania and to Ipswich in my own electorate. These are great organisations. I urge the government to reconsider this particular decision. If you want to get kids ready for school, you need to address truancy issues early on. Preparing kids for school at a very young age involves mentoring, assistance and help for mums and dads. It is not just about getting truancy officers; it is about addressing those issues as well. (Time expired)