Many of the problems in our community are complex. It is often a combination of problems including some or all of unemployment, lack of education and skills, poverty, sub-standard housing, endemic family breakdown and poor health that can cause social disintegration for individuals, families and even entire regions. Modern economic and political conditions have been made increasingly more complex because of the impact of privatization and of the challenges posed by globalization. The old, simple response of trying to treat the symptoms does not work because the problems do not fit in neat boxes which match with the boundaries of our government departments. Poverty is not portfolio based.
Disadvantage is a virus that knows no boundaries.
In Britain, Labor's initiative has started to work to achieve real results and has now been extended. In its first two years it has examined and then recommended action on school exclusion, homelessness, youth unemployment, neighborhood renewal and teenage pregnancy. So, let me tell you how our Social Inclusion Initiative will work in this State. We will bring together a team drawn from the public service, from the private and community sectors and from the broader community to go to work quickly in tackling specific problems which the next Labor Cabinet will identify. In turn, they will pull together resources from across government and the community to come up with specific solutions to specific problems in specific communities.