Page 612 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009

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Obviously, homelessness is a significant issue for people afflicted by mental health and we would like to see more information, more service delivery in homelessness and how that can resolve some of these problems. There are many other areas across other departments and portfolios. So in regard to the idea of a more holistic view, an all-of-government action plan, certainly I support that aspiration.

The mental health situation we have here certainly requires a lot of nous, a lot of information, a lot of consultation. And part of that process was the KPMG report relating to the consultation on the draft mental health services plan. We assume that it has been tabled already. That had a lot of information that, I guess, has led to the formulation of the government’s strategy and policy; so it is going to be very useful to have a look at that document.

We, on this side, certainly support the release of these important documents because they inform the community about the context of how the government is making decisions—and this is a very important process of accountable governance—so that we can understand why decisions are being made. I just note, in the tabling of this document and the way that this was done, when we asked for a similar document to be tabled, the Costello review, unfortunately the Greens did not support us at that stage.

So I do remain a little confused as to why, in this case, the document that led to the context and why decisions were made by this government on such an important decision was so easily tabled in an agreement that has obviously been made between the Greens and Labor; but when we wanted a similar document tabled immediately, the Costello review, we were not granted it and certainly the Greens then blocked our ability to get that document. I am a little confused how it seems to be that Labor will give the Greens exactly what they ask for immediately but when we ask for a similar document that informed the context we were not provided all of the Costello review or the information provided in it.

In summary, I do have concerns about the draft services mental health plan as it stands at the moment. There are a number of issues that need to be resolved. A lot have been highlighted by Ms Bresnan. I think that as we move forward we want to make sure we include those. I look forward to working with the minister and doing it in a consultative manner. I hope they take our points on board so that as we move forward we get the plan that the ACT community deserves.

MS BURCH (Brindabella) (11.50): I rise today to speak on the motion moved by the Greens on mental health in the ACT. As the Minister for Health has outlined, the ACT Labor government are excelling in this area and we are looking forward to implementing the finalised mental health service plan. As members heard from the minister, the verbal feedback from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, which undertook an in-depth review last week, was that Mental Health ACT is a superior service and at the forefront of mental health services delivery in Australia. I repeat that their comment was that our service is at the forefront.

Let me just recap a few of the highlights from the survey team’s comments in regard to our leading-edge mental health service. The surveyors commented that Mental


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