Page 1127 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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The committee has recommended that the Government continue to address the need for services for people with a mental dysfunction, noting particularly the need for more acute beds for people with a mental illness and services for children and adolescents requiring psychiatric intervention. The committee is also concerned that the need for resources continues to be monitored, particularly under the operation of any new legislation. It therefore recommends also that the Government report to the committee, or its equivalent at the time, every six months on the need for and provision of services. It should also be noted that the interim legislation has a sunset clause of two years, with a renewable two years as a disallowable instrument within the recommendations in the report.
I firmly believe that this report shows the way forward for reform of mental health legislation in the ACT, a way to bring the ACT out of Dark Ages legislation into the treatment, care and human rights standards of the 1990s. The proposed legislation is obviously not perfect. It will need to be changed. However, I do not think we can afford to sit and worry about perfection - something which no-one has yet achieved - while the law is failing people's basic needs. The complexity of the issues involved and the need to balance everybody's interests and concerns have delayed the introduction of new legislation for years. I believe that we have now come to a place where we can act and remedy, or begin to remedy, an intolerable situation. The proposed legislation brings together the concerns raised by all parties involved and shows the way forward. It has been developed to meet the specific needs of the ACT while keeping within national guidelines. Adopting the recommendations of the report will provide a long awaited and well guided start to the reform of mental health legislation in the ACT.
I would like to place on record on behalf of the committee our sincere thanks, firstly, to everyone from the public who participated in this very difficult and complex inquiry. The representations received by the committee from people in the community, both individuals and groups, have certainly been heeded. My sincere thanks on behalf of the committee go also to Kim Bond, who was the secretary to the committee when this process started, and to Russell Keith, who is the current secretary to the committee. Sorting the enormous amount of information for the use of committee members was an enormous task carried out incredibly well by both Kim and, latterly, Russell. I do not think the committee could have come to any conclusions without that assistance. I am sure that the other committee members will join me in that vote of thanks and recognition of that workload. I have pleasure in endorsing this report to the Assembly.
MR MOORE (11.39): I would like to add a few words, Madam Speaker. The issue of mental health is most difficult; in fact, I would say that it is one of the most difficult issues I have dealt with since being elected to this Assembly. We are going through a transition period, both nationally and internationally, in the way we deal with people with different forms of mental dysfunction. The notion that, even in the time we have been given, we would be able to get this Bill right simply was not a notion that I could accept. It is for that reason that I am pleased with the interim nature of the recommendations of the committee. We suggest that the Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Bill, after it has been renamed, proceed for two years, to allow further discussion and to give people an opportunity to understand what is happening within the national sphere, which is very important.
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