Thank you very much Dr Moyes, parliamentary colleagues, guests, ladies and gentlemen. It's said truly that life is full of paradoxes and one of the great paradoxes of modern Australia is that at a time when generically speaking our economy is doing well, we nonetheless have within our society many areas of disadvantage, many pockets of poverty and many people who through a combination of circumstances are not enjoying the benefits of a very strong Australian nation.
So it's very appropriate that Family Makeovers, the appeal that I very strongly support and the Government very strongly supports, is being launched the very day after I launched the Commonwealth Government's programme of Stronger Families and Communities which is very directly based upon two simple propositions that I support very strongly.
The first of those is that the earlier that can intervene in a child's life to protect it from adverse circumstances that is going to effect his or her upbringing, the better not only for that child's personal future and wellbeing but also for the wellbeing of society. The costs of troubled children are measured greatest of all in the emotional disturbance they suffer, but they're also measured in the resort to crime, the endemic truancy and the general contribution that a troubled child and a dysfunctional family makes to a troubled and potentially dysfunctional community. And the whole emphasis of the programme that I launched yesterday is to recognise that reality and to do what we can as a community working together, the Government, welfare organisations, individuals and business to intervene early and to reduce the levels of truancy, of abuse, of dysfunctionality in all its manifestations and the contributions that will make in the future is enormous.
The second principle on which it is based, this policy, is my very strong belief, often repeated, and I repeat it again today, that the organisations that are best able to deliver these services are in fact organisations like the Wesley Mission, they know the problem, they've had coalface experience, they know even better than the sternest bureaucrat in the Department of Finance and Administration how hard it is to raise money and therefore how prudent you have to be in the spending of your donors' dollars.
So this programme that I launched yesterday brings together those two essential tenets, a belief if you like of my approach to particularly the area of dysfunctional families and children being born frankly into an environment where unless something is done they have no hope of growing up and leading the sort of lives that we hope to provide to our children and we hope that society generally can provide. And I announced yesterday a number of organisations that will receive funding initially and there are many other programmes and the idea is that something like 35 areas of potential disadvantage have been selected and the proposition in relation to those 35 areas around Australia is that one of these great organisations will be funded to the tune of about $4 million over a period of four years to support and run programmes that are based on the concept of early intervention.
Now Wesley Mission of course in its current manifestation and previously as the Central Methodist Mission has of course, as Gordon said, have been providing help and service to underprivileged people in and around Sydney for more than 170 years and it's a remarkable contribution that it's made to Sydney and a remarkable contribution that it's made to the less privileged people within Australia's community. And I want to very strongly support the appeal that Dr Moyes has launched. I am very happy to say that the Commonwealth Government will itself contribute $200,000 to that particular appeal and that, of course, is without prejudice in anyway to any opportunities that the mission may have either in relation to this programme or indeed any other programme to bid for funds and resources that are available under the Stronger Families and Community service.
Can I also say, I'm conscious that I'm speaking at a luncheon organised by the Wesley Mission, that you are all aware that out of its predecessor it grew the Lifeline Service which today is Australia's premier telephone counselling service. A service that means that countless thousands of Australians over the years have been prevented through counselling from taking their own lives, have been reconnected to their families and generally have been able to live happy fulfilled lives and this great service continues to provide enormously to our city and it's been imitated around the world. It's my understanding that it was the very first telephone counselling service of its kind anywhere in the world and as a result of the leadership and the vision displayed by the late Alan Walker it has spread around the world. I am very much aware that in order to continue to expand and sustain the effective of operation, its telephone infrastructure is in need of significant refurbishment and upgrade and I'd like to indicate that the Commonwealth Government would be very keen to assist in relation to that process. But I'll be arranging for some officers from by both my office and my department to be in touch with Lifeline to discuss that because this service provides an indispensable link between the community and those who have lost, not only their sanity but also their reason for continued existence and a wealthy, fortunate, privileged society, which we are, has an obligation in very many different ways to try and assist that.
Can I just finally say that, I've long admired the work of Wesley Mission, as I do the work of great organisations as the Society of St Vincent de Paul and Anglicare, and the Salvation Army, and the Smith Family - all of those other great organisations who I unapologetically believe know more about helping the underprivileged and the marginalised in our society than anybody else could possible hope to know and I therefore believe very strongly, that the best was that we can help those underprivileged and marginalised people as a Government is to help those great organisations that fuse practical experience with a sense of mission, a sense of commitment born in the main, but not exclusively of course, by the great Judeao-Christian ethics that instruct and continue to influence our community.
On this eve of Easter luncheon, I especially feel privileged to be part of this launch. I wish it well. I hope you'll support it and I wish the Wesley Mission every success in its great Christian mission of caring for the underprivileged in our community.
Thank you.
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