Page 3157 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
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This Minister claims to have had a look at what goes on elsewhere. I must say that, in his visits to those places, he did not take much notice, because he did not learn anything. Just across the border in Queanbeyan a 24-hour mental health crisis service has been doing all of the things that this Government is not going to provide for people with mental illness.
I can tell you that, even on the most conservative estimate, the service provided to the people of Queanbeyan costs more than this Government is prepared to do for the people of Canberra. This Government is not going to do better than what is done in Queanbeyan - for a population many times the size of the population which is serviced by the workers in the Queanbeyan service.
This Government is a joke. The fact of the matter is that this Minister stopped and held back the delivery of services to the mentally ill just to fulfil his political agenda. Government members held on to funds in the Follett budget so they could try to issue a few sweeteners in their own. They did not spend important money which was intended for the disadvantaged. That is what this Government is about - and you have been found out, the lot of you.
This Minister, at a meeting to discuss a mental health crisis service for the ACT, on 4 July this year - write that down, Mr Humphries - promised a group that $300,000 would be made available. I cannot find the figure "3" in any of the figures in the budget. That is the duplicity I am talking about. This Minister has made promises to people with mental illness, and has not lived up to the promises. This Minister has reneged; this Government has reneged - and the people of the ACT know that this Government has reneged. The farcical approach to the withholding of funding for services to the mentally ill is repeated by the duplicity of this Minister and this Government. The fact of the matter is that this Government has not delivered. It has ratted on a promise that it made to the people of the ACT. Instead of providing $300,000, what he has done - - -
Mr Humphries: You are narky because we deliver what you only promised.
MR BERRY: Have a look at your own budget papers, if you have taken the trouble to read them. They have allocated $211,000 in this year. That adds up to $310,000 short of Labor's funding in full year terms, and $20,000 short of the Minister's promised $300,000. That is what this Minister is on about.
Mr Humphries: It is $60,000 more than you put up.
MR BERRY: The figures are on the record, Mr Humphries - $310,000 short of Labor's commitment to funding for the mentally ill in the ACT. And what did they do with the - - -
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