Page 3969 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I hosted a meeting recently, which Minister Stephen-Smith also came to, of a dozen key service providers in the city to get some feedback from them on what is going on and to make sure we are keeping abreast of the issues arising in this space. I think there is some distance to go. Certainly it is on the agenda at COAG. The federal government has identified money in the federal budget. They spoke of $80Â million in the mental health space, but that is going out on a pro rata basis across four years, so that is $20 million for the entire country. (Time expired.)
MS LEE: Minister, how many people with a mental illness have lost services as a result of the transition to the NDIS?
MR RATTENBURY: I do not know that that is possible to quantify, in the sense that, to pick up the point I was just making, some people are applying for the NDIS and are being accepted; others have been rejected. Because mental health can be episodic by nature, it does not necessarily fit well with the NDIS model. So there are some transition difficulties here.
I am not sure if I can give you the number of people who have missed out. I suspect that there are figures about people who have applied and not received a package under the NDIS and have identified as having a mental health issue, but they would not be figures that I think the ACT government has.
I will take the question on notice and see if there is any data I have in that space that I could provide to the Assembly.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, what actions have you taken to ensure that people with a mental illness have not been disadvantaged in the ACT during the transition to the NDIS?
MR RATTENBURY: There are a number of actions that the ACT government has already taken. I spoke of the meeting with Minister Stephen-Smith, and I have spoken with service providers to help them inform us of gaps they were seeing and problems that were arising. The ACT government has put aside funds to provide some transition. Over the past couple of years we have funded some services beyond their previous contracts to enable them to continue to operate and to develop their models to transition to the NDIS.
They are a couple of the practical steps that have been taken and we have not finished in that space. I think there are further steps we will need to take as issues emerge with this transition to the NDIS.
Public housing—Holder
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development and relates to the public housing development in Holder. Minister, the traffic study for this development states:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video