Page 522 - Week 02 - Thursday, 22 February 1990
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Untreated, the sufferers' condition usually worsens. This causes enormous disruption to their lives. As they say, it is better to have a fence at the top of the cliff than an ambulance at the bottom.
These are the sorts of statements that Mr Humphries ignored and these are the sorts of things that he will not address because of his refusal to commit this Government to provision of services for people in real trouble. I think his statement in the adjournment debate last evening was an absolute disgrace and something that the people of the ACT will be concerned about for many years to come. I know that Mr Collaery will be a bit twitchy about that, because he has expressed concerns about the mentally ill in the past. The Government needs to sit down and come to its senses on this issue. It is well known that the ACT is underfunded in the provision of mental health services.
It might be an embarrassment to the Alliance Government that the Labor Government committed some money to kick off the program, but the fact of the matter is that we got it going and now you have stopped it in its tracks. Nothing will now be done until who knows when. We need something like Ms Steeper suggested - if the money is not enough to fund a whole year, then it would certainly be adequate to plan the extended hours service and train workers in the skills they will need. Then ongoing funding could be given in the next financial year and the service could be up and running with the least possible delay.
That seems a simple solution and whoever starts the service off has to go through that process. Workers will need to be trained in whatever service is provided for the mentally ill. For the Minister to say that in some way he supports the provision of mental health services and then to add that there is no way that he will commit himself to that provision would have to be the biggest fib that has been told in this place in this sitting period.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (5.23): Mr Speaker, I feel honour-bound to respond to the claimed fib on behalf of my colleague, Mr Humphries who, as the record shows, is not in the chamber. He is at an official function that is about to take place outside the precincts of this Assembly. Mr Berry has happily reminded members of the express concern for mental health facilities in the ACT. That they are not adequate is, I think, a concession in his statement and has been a concession on this side of the house as well. I would like to remind Mr Berry of the Labor Party's electoral commitment to, among other things, carry out an urgent review of the ACT Mental Health Ordinance.
Mr Berry: And we did it - we started it off.
MR COLLAERY: You had seven months to initiate that, and additionally to provide facilities for a full range of care to give people with disabilities, or their guardians, an
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