Page 3234 - Week 11 - Thursday, 13 September 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the answer to the question is that I am quite certain that all the facilities associated with the Therapy Centre will be located on the one site and they will not be split up, because I have given the people who are associated with that centre a guarantee that the quality of that centre will not be put in jeopardy through the movement of that centre away from the South Curtin School building.
Mr Berry: Have you been out there?
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, of course I have been out there, Mr Berry. I think that there should not be any fears about the loss of quality in that respect. Obviously we have to balance delicately the way in which the movement occurs so as not to jeopardise the activities going on in the centre at any particular time, but I am confident that that can be done. At this stage the most likely location would be the Weston Creek Health Centre building, which does have space in it and would, I think, be a suitable alternative site. I have had meetings with the therapists who operate the Therapy Centre, with some of the parents whose children attend the Therapy Centre and, of course, with my department - both the health and education arms of it - and I am confident that that location would be a suitable alternative.
I think Mr Wood would be well aware that one of the concerns of the parents at that centre is that children do not go into settings which are hospital-like. They want a centre which is non-institutional in appearance and I think that the Weston Creek Health Centre building does fulfil that need. There will, of course, continue to be health centre activities going on in the Weston Creek Health Centre building; they will not be entirely dislocated by that movement. I am sure that in the circumstances it is probably a quite satisfactory outcome.
MR WOOD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. The Minister might indicate what the space in the health centre used to be. I am not aware that there was space available. I hope it is not a sign of a run-down of the health centres. Because of some speculation about health centres, can you also indicate that there will be no further relocation of the Therapy Centre?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I can certainly undertake that there will be no further relocation of the Therapy Centre in the life of this Government. I cannot see into the endless future; but certainly, as far as this Government is concerned, there will be no other relocation. The space I am referring to in the Weston Creek Health Centre is not necessarily space that is sitting unoccupied at the present time; but there are - as Mr Wood would be aware if he has been out there - some rooms which are not dedicated to anything in particular, and I believe that by reallocating some things that are presently in that centre there would be the capacity to conduct the Therapy Centre from that site.
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