Page 3726 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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MR CONNOLLY: Empty during the middle of the day? They are not empty, Mr De Domenico, but there is a much lower demand during the middle of the day. Therefore, during the middle of the day we tend to reduce the level of our services.
Mrs Carnell: But you still pay them.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, we do still pay them, because we are required by law to pay them under the award. I wonder whether the pharmaceutical assistant who works in Mrs Carnell's pharmacy is paid while she is dealing with a customer and making up a prescription or whatever, but when there is nobody in the store Mrs Carnell says, "Right, pay stops", and when another customer comes into the store, "Right", Mrs Carnell says, "pay starts again", so that in a two-hour period the cheerful assistant who works for Mrs Carnell finds that he or she gets paid for perhaps half or two-thirds of the time.
Madam Speaker, the move to part-time drivers, which we are successfully negotiating at the moment, will be, there is no question, a significant improvement in the working conditions within ACTION. It will be a significant efficiency improvement. At the moment, we pay our workers under the award and we work our workers to fit the demands of the routes, that is, busy periods in the morning and afternoon. We tend to have fewer drivers on the road during the middle of the day. Would Mrs Carnell have us have more empty buses out on the streets in the middle of the day? Surely not.
Mental Health Crisis Service
MR LAMONT: My question is directed to the Deputy Chief Minister in his capacity as Minister for Health. Will the Minister explain the recent notice and publicity in the Canberra Times regarding changes in the mental health crisis service and what impact this will have on services to the community?
MR BERRY: I see Mr Humphries laughing at this issue. That is how he treated the mentally ill when he was in government. I thank the member for the question. The Mental Health Service has provided a daily crisis service from the four principal health centres: Belconnen, Phillip, Tuggeranong - you remember, Mrs Carnell, the one you could not find - and the city. I think you had Trevor helping you too, as I remember. Mr Kaine was helping. I hope that he passed navigation when he got his licence for the plane.
An after-hours crisis service has operated from the Woden Valley Hospital since 1991. Both services have been combined to provide a community based service, which will assist the public by providing a well-trained and responsive team which can be accessed from a single contact number. The crisis team will work closely with community health teams in the hospital in order to ensure continuity of service for clients. In consultations with consumers and carers, concerns had been expressed at the difficulty in having a number of crisis contact numbers. The changes will thus improve services and reduce duplication. So we are improving our services in all respects, and the Mental Health Service is just one of them.
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