Remarks, Ravenswood Child and Family Centre
22 May 2021
Prime Minister: Thank you very much, Bridget. It's great to be here. Can I acknowledge the Indigenous owners of the land and the elders past, present and future. As always, any people who have served in our Defence Forces, thank you for your service. But particularly, I want to thank Bernadette and Brave for the tremendous work that you do.
And it's great to be here in Ravenswood with Bridget. This is Bridget's community. This is where you grew up. And this is, I know, a very special place for you to be here in Ravenswood, before at the neighbourhood centre just down the road not too long ago. And I always love coming here with Bridget because I just see the passion for her community and the strength of her community. And it's on display here Bernadette, when we're standing here in front of the Centre and we see the strength and the resilience which is being built into people's lives here.
You'll often hear me talk about essential services and when I say that people often think I'm just referring to hospitals and schools, aged care facilities, and of course I am. But the community facilities and the supports that are available across our country, I think is a great testament to the character of our nation. But they're only made possible because of the amazing people who come and create these incredible spaces. Sure, the buildings and other things are supported by governments and as they should be, whether they are local, state or federal. But the one thing that none of us can do is create Bernadettes and the many other great people who work here and provide support. Volunteers and in particular, the wonderful community, people who come along here to receive that support and get the encouragement that they need to be able to go and do the best they possibly can, not just for themselves and their own futures, we’ve met many of the mums here this morning, but especially for their kids. And there is nothing, I think, more encouraging and more inspiring than seeing the pure determination of parents to do the best they possibly can for their kids, whatever circumstances they find themselves in and how that lights up their life and how that inspires them. And I think that's what you’ve really tapped into. And you know a lot about that, Bernadette. So I also want to thank Wendy Askew. Senator Askew, she’s going to become a grandmother this year, she tells me. So she's been rehearsing those skills for later in the year with the kids here today.
It's wonderful to celebrate the work, the foundational values of Brave Foundation - inspire, support and encourage our community to dream - that’s the first one. Empower, champion and resource individual potential. Connect, establish and strengthen collaborative relationships. Include embracing diversity and combating prejudice. And innovate, find and make a way. When I think of those values, they are clearly being lived out here by Brave. But I've got to tell you, I think they’ve been lived out by Bridget Archer. I'm so proud to have Bridget as part of our team, because what Bridget brings to our team is an appreciation and an understanding of whether it's communities like Ravenswood or many others. And that enables me and my senior team to have a good appreciation of just how important services like this are in supporting community, building community and building up individual lives and families and to make them stronger. Because at the end of the day, our country is only as great as every individual Australian, every individual community across our country, each and every family across our community. That's where Australia's strength is. It's in the individuals and the families of the communities. And this space, this organisation is filling that space massively in making Australia a stronger place.
One of 60 organisations around the country, Brave is one of those that are receiving grants amounting to some $40 million as part of the Women's Leadership and Development Program. And as part of that, Brave Foundation will receive $6 million as part of what we've put in the Budget this year. And so we're very hopeful and very confident that that will be put to enormously good use across Brave Foundation. The grant will support the work that you do, particularly for young mums and in many cases for young fathers as well, and to navigate their way through school during and after the birth of their child.
I was remarking also that an important part of our mental health package, $2.3 billion program that is in our Budget this year, is particularly focusing on families. Young families in particular, after they’ve have kids, because we also know that that can be a key point of massive anxiety and stress and pressure for Australians and can be the trigger point for many mental health challenges that families can have. The mental health program that is in this Budget has a heavy focus on early intervention to ensure that people can go through those periods of their life. Of course, there’s great stress, of course there’s great anxiety, because it's quite normal for them to be under stress in those circumstances. We've had young kids, regardless of what their circumstances are, you love them. You love them more than you can say. But they can try you, on a daily basis. But that's the stuff of life, which is fantastic.
So it's great that the support is being provided here to enable people to get the help they need to go through those times and to come out stronger and to be able to have the opportunity. Because sometimes in situations where families might be created, parents may not be able to always have the opportunity to pursue their own education and skills opportunities and things like that. These programs are helping people realise that, while managing the very difficult challenges they have in raising a family.
In Tasmania, the Women's Leadership and Development Program grants are also supporting Relationships Australia Tasmania. There is some $1.2 million to work with women who have experienced psychological, social and generational barriers to employment. And the funding is also going to Big Heart. There is $200,000 there to support disadvantaged young women aged between 13 and 20 to build new pathways to science, technology, engineering and maths education, STEM and careers. In other parts of the country, we’re supporting programs that help women into non-traditional trades and helping them to reach leadership roles in their careers and help break down substantial barriers due to systematic disadvantage.
So these programs we're very excited about, they form a big part of our Budget. They're enabled by the work we’re more broadly doing to ensure that Australia comes through this pandemic as strong as we possibly can and continue to emerge from this. We’ve still got a long way to go, but while we've got to combat these sort of broader issues of viruses and things like that, the day to day challenges haven't changed. The struggles that families will face, whether it's here in Ravenswood or anywhere else, they're there, whether there's a pandemic or not. The challenges are there, whether the economic conditions are great or the economic conditions are not so great. And there can be nothing more precious than ensuring that our kids get off to the best possible start in life and that we can support parents also through those very difficult and challenging times.
So, very pleased Bernadette to join you this morning and thank you for the great work that Brave is doing across the country. And we really do feel quite privileged to be able to come along here this morning to do our bit, because we know you always do yours. Thank you.
