New South Wales Consolidated Acts

COMMUNITY WELFARE ACT 1987 - SECT 4

4 Objects of community welfare legislation

(1) The objects of the community welfare legislation are:

(a) to promote, protect, develop, maintain and improve the well-being of the people of New South Wales to the maximum extent possible,

(b) to promote the welfare of the family as the basis of community well-being,

(c) to ensure the provision, to the maximum extent possible, of services for, and assistance to, persons disadvantaged because of:

(i) lack of adequate family or social support,

(ii) personal or family problems that inhibit adequate social functioning,

(iii) the breakdown of the family as a social unit,

(iv) lack of adequate food, shelter or other basic necessities,

(v) physical or intellectual impairment,

(vi) their being members of an ethnic group which has inadequate access to services or resources available in the community,

(vii) age, whether young, advanced or other,

(viii) lack of information about or access to services or resources available in the community, or

(ix) their residing in places which lack basic services essential to the proper functioning of those persons,

(d) to promote the welfare of Aborigines on the basis of a recognition of:

(i) Aboriginal culture and identity,

(ii) Aboriginal community structures,

(iii) Aboriginal community standards,

(iv) the rights of Aborigines to raise and protect their own children, and

(v) the rights of Aborigines to be involved in the decision-making processes that affect them and their children,

(e) to encourage the establishment of community welfare and other services necessary to promote, protect, develop, maintain and improve the well-being of persons,

(f) to assist and encourage collaboration among persons and organisations engaged in the promotion of community welfare or the provision of community welfare services,

(g) to promote and encourage research, education, instruction and training in matters relating to community welfare,

(h) to promote and facilitate the provision by persons and organisations of services to complement any community welfare service,

(i) to promote the involvement of the community in the provision of community welfare services and in the social development of the community, and

(j) to co-ordinate the allocation of funds for community welfare services.

(2) The provisions of any paragraph of subsection (1) shall not be construed as limiting or being limited by the operation of any other provision of the community welfare legislation.

(3) In making any appointment under the community welfare legislation, the Minister shall have regard to the objects specified in subsection (1).