Page 2600 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 2013
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My amendment has been circulated, and I now move:
Omit all words after “notes”, substitute:
“(a) that the ACT Government first promised a Secure Mental Health Facility in 2005;
(b) that, at the 2008 election, the ACT Government promised $17.4 million to deliver a Secure Mental Health Facility by 2011;
(c) that, in the 2011-2012 Budget, the Health Minister removed funding for a Secure Mental Health Facility;
(d) that, at the 2012 election, the ACT Labor Party again promised a Secure Mental Health Facility;
(e) that, to date, no construction has progressed on a Secure Mental Health Facility;
(f) that, based on current plans, a Secure Mental Health Facility will not be built until after the 2016 election;
(g) that there have been numerous assaults on nurses at the Adult Mental Health Unit at The Canberra Hospital and a death in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre; and
(h) that the Government is ‘locked into’ the Quamby site for the facility; and
(2) calls on the Assembly to:
(a) agree that the Secure Mental Health Facility project should be fast-tracked to allow for delivery ahead of the early 2017 timetable currently planned;
(b) confirm its support for a 25 bed medium/low security secure mental health facility to be constructed on the former Quamby site at Symonston;
(c) agree to consider project specific legislation which would expedite the planning process and allow construction of the Secure Mental Health Facility to commence as soon as possible;
(d) agree that appropriate comprehensive community consultation continue throughout the project’s design, implementation and delivery phases; and
(e) condemn the Health Minister for her failure to deliver the facility as promised.”.
My amendment condemns the minister because, ultimately, somebody has to be responsible. We cannot have the situation where such a fiasco, such delay and such impact on those who are mentally ill and our staff can occur without somebody being responsible, and it needs to be the minister. This is about the point about Westminster government—it needs the minister to stand up and say, “Yes, I’ll cop it,” instead of
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