Page 685 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
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Interestingly, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians supported the law reform recommendations. That is very significant, and perhaps that answers a bit of Mr Wood's concern that this will not get the momentum to turn itself into reality. Professor Ron Penny, chief Commonwealth education and services adviser on AIDS for the Australian National Council of AIDS, supports the document and believes that it is essential that patients be informed about what is happening to them. He specifically makes his comments in relation to patients affected by the HIV.
As my colleague Mr Humphries reminded me, the report does not address fully the condition of people with disabilities and minors. I note in a footnote, at page 17 of the report, that the South Australian Consent to Medical and Dental Procedures Act 1985 does not define health in this context, but it is suggested by the authors of this report that the general consensus would include all aspects, physical and mental. As Mr Humphries quite properly observes, there has not been sufficient emphasis on the situation of people with disabilities and minors.
The announcement made by the Government on its proposed law reform program, regrettably, has not caught the attention of the Opposition, and it did not show interest in debating that program yesterday. I believe that this document will be one of the early documents taken on board by the local law reform process. If a log jam develops interstate, hopefully the ACT can lead the way on this matter and meet the concerns raised by all members in the house.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion (by Mr Collaery) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Apartheid
MR BERRY (5.17): Today is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or Sharpeville day. The laughter on the other side of the house demonstrates the difference between those people opposite and the Labor Party. The Labor Party's vision is international; we are concerned for people in other countries, and we represent a lot of people in the ACT who share similar concerns and who want apartheid stopped.
On this day in 1960 the racist police of South Africa murdered 69 innocent people and maimed hundreds of African people as those people peacefully demonstrated against
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