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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3177 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

It finished:

If staff have knowledge of misconduct and irregular practices they have a responsibility to report those practices to either myself or the Regional Managers who will take appropriate action.

That would be fine if as well it had said, "You also have a complaints mechanism in place which, if you do not feel your complaints or concerns have been addressed by management, you can use", and informed staff of the inquiry that is being undertaken by Mr Patterson.

Staff were very intimidated by this note because it was also implying that it was incorrect procedure to have talked to the Chronicle, which it quite probably was, but that therefore other people should be reporting this if they knew who did it. I faxed that to Mr Patterson; he shared my concern because he had said to me at the beginning of our meeting, when we first discussed this whole inquiry, that he regarded any intimidation of witnesses or people talking to him as a serious allegation and that these complaints mechanisms should always be available for people. I understand that another note has been sent to all the houses, informing staff of their right to contact the Health Complaints Commissioner. Another rumour that is going around is that, if this fuss continues, the whole service is going to be privatised. I really hope that is an incorrect rumour.

I will not go into other aspects of Disability Services which are of concern at this stage. I want to focus today on this particular one because I think it is a good indication of where we have problems within the service. The Social Policy Committee will be reporting on many issues, of course, as will Mr Patterson. I acknowledge that the transition from institutions to community-based care is still in the early stages, but it is critical that this transition is appropriately resourced and managed, or we will hear more cries - there are cries already - from some parents saying, "Give us back the institutions. What has happened to the community-based care? Where is the community support? This is a cost cutting exercise". That is a very sad state of affairs because we all agreed that the institutions were not a good solution for anybody.

The question of adequately resourcing this transition is critical, and I have to ask that Mrs Carnell give much more serious consideration to these issues. It would be reassuring if Mrs Carnell would acknowledge that she needs to take more interest in the detail of her Health portfolio rather than just talk about money saved and waiting list numbers. Health is also about people with a disability and their carers. It is the responsibility of the Minister to ensure an improvement in this area. It is quite obvious that there have been failures, and these people are suffering. We need to be much better resourced so that management has a better opportunity to do the work they have to do, and it is indeed very challenging. Perhaps we need another Minister for Health, who has time for the job.

MS REILLY (4.03): I would like to raise some of the concerns that have come to my attention in relation to health management of group houses by Disability Services. Mrs Carnell, in answer to various questions, has made comments about how these houses, which are in her Disability Services area, are people's homes. How many people in the ACT live in houses where they have no written rights of residence? How many people in the ACT have this lack of tenure?

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