Page 4504 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 November 2005

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

outrageous it was that the federal government had guillotined debate on industrial relations reforms.

This is the problem: one set of rules applies down here; bully your way through the Assembly; bully your way amongst your colleagues over there—“You are only in government because of me and do as I say”—but, when it comes to what goes on in another parliament, we have to apply all these new-found values. I struggle with the inconsistency. I hope—and I am sure by the extraordinary reaction we have seen this morning that this issue has hit a raw nerve—behind all that, when things settle, the Chief Minister rethinks his approach.

Question put:

That Mr Mulcahy’s motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 7

Noes 10

Mrs Burke

Mr Smyth

Mr Berry

Mr Hargreaves

Mrs Dunne

Mr Stefaniak

Mr Corbell

Ms MacDonald

Mr Mulcahy

Dr Foskey

Ms Porter

Mr Pratt

Ms Gallagher

Mr Quinlan

Mr Seselja

Mr Gentleman

Mr Stanhope

Question so resolved in the negative.

Sitting suspended from 12.37 to 2.30 pm.

Questions without notice

Mental health

MR SMYTH: My question is directed to the Minister for Health and relates to the mental health crisis teams. Minister, it has been reported to me that the CAT team was rung last night at 7.15 pm to provide assistance to a seriously ill and distressed person. Assistance finally arrived at 11.15—four hours later—in the form of a CAT worker escorted by two police officers, by which time the person’s condition had deteriorated dramatically. She then needed to be admitted to the PSU.

Minister, is it the case that, after a certain hour of the day, CAT teams will go on site only with a police escort of at least two officers? If so, given the pressure on police resources and numbers, is it the lack of police numbers that causes long delays in the CAT team reaching seriously ill people in the ACT?

MR CORBELL: I am not familiar with every single incident relating to clinical care in the ACT, whether it is for mental health services or any other ACT health service. If Mr Smyth is able to provide me with the details of the incident, I certainly undertake to investigate the matter and provide him with information. It is quite unrealistic for Mr Smyth to ask me a question about an incident that occurred in the last 24 hours, given that there are literally thousands of occasions of care provided every day in the ACT health system.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .