Page 3466 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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HEALTH AND SOCIAL WELFARE MINISTERS MEETING
Ministerial Statement
MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement on the joint meeting of Health and Social Welfare Ministers held in Sydney on 6 September 1991.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: As members of the Assembly would be aware, Commonwealth, State, Territory and local governments are actively engaged in the process of reform of intergovernmental relations across Australia. This process, Mr Speaker, was instigated by the inaugural Special Premiers Conference held in October 1990. Amongst the various reform tasks set in train by that conference, ministerial councils in relevant program areas were asked to review roles and responsibilities in program and service delivery to enable recommendations to be made to heads of government by November 1991.
In August the Chief Minister addressed the Assembly on the outcomes of the Special Premiers Conference held in July this year. At the July conference the Chief Minister successfully pressed for the communique to recognise the importance of proper consultation with the non-government sector in the functional review process, in view of that sector's strong interest in service delivery.
Reports on functional reviews in the areas of child-care, the supported accommodation assistance program and health and aged care, including mental health and rural services, were considered at the joint meeting of Health and Social Welfare Ministers on 6 September 1991. The ACT supported a decision to release these reports to enable community consultation prior to the next Special Premiers Conference in November.
I intend today, Mr Speaker, on behalf of myself and my colleague Mr Connolly, the Minister for Housing and Community Services, to outline the options presented at the joint meeting. The meeting considered first the reports of functional reviews into child-care programs and the supported accommodation assistance program, commonly known as SAAP. The options presented essentially range from proposals for the Commonwealth to assume sole responsibility, to joint responsibility between the Commonwealth and States, to the States assuming sole responsibility. Ministers agreed that the reports should go forward to the Special Premiers Conference in November and that they should be made public. Comprehensive community consultation will be undertaken in the next few weeks. The community's input on these issues is vitally important.
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