Page 1079 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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There are other institutions around the city, but I do not want to say where they are or the streets. There is another one near where I live in Narrabundah, not far from my house. In fact, I walk past it often. It is only a few hundred metres from where I live. It is mainly for young to older people, and it is a respite care facility where parents who desperately need a weekend free can drop the child off and get a break for a weekend. I go there occasionally and sit down and talk to the marvellous staff there. I believe that they do a great job. I am sure that Mr Berry was not getting at them, but really at the Government, when he made these assertions.
Mr Speaker, I was got at recently for going over my budget. I mentioned yesterday that $813,000 was for award payments and structural changes in the work force. Also, the house should know that we have had a couple of completely unanticipated crises. One young man is being cared for at the moment in a special section at Bruce Hostel, and it is costing more than $150,000 a year for that 16-year-old. Members are also aware of a couple of other tragic cases where children with violent proclivities have had to be separated from mainstream services. We have had to create some renovations and set up a special house in Ainslie, and that is costing $300,000 more than we anticipated for 24-hour, one-to-one care, for two youngsters there.
I think the opposition speech from Mr Wood was the one that should have been put on the table. I believe that we must face the issue of whether Down's syndrome children particularly have unrestricted access to normal schooling. That is an issue that Mr Humphries and I have discussed and corresponded with relevant people on. Also, it is necessary for us to tackle, in a reasoned way, the rule, that has been set for many years, that children do not enter these care environments until they are 12 years of age. That may present some problems under forthcoming age discrimination legislation, but that is an issue that we need to discuss in an informed sense in this house at some time. We need to get some agreements on these issues, because society does not agree at this stage - except for some of the special therapy lessons that are delivered in some of the places, in particular the Therapy Centre that has been much in debate recently. There is a difficulty in providing longer respite care for children under 12 years of age. We need to face up to that.
Also in the budget announced by the Treasurer, we provided an adolescent day care unit to provide a daytime therapeutic environment for young people between 12 and 18. That is going at the moment, and a group of interested departments and community service people are putting that together. There was a fair amount of money provided to interact in these areas in the budget. I will not go through them, but I enjoin the Opposition to have another look at it.
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