Page 3729 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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about this yesterday - through the Balancing Rights inquiry. That was carried on through the Alliance Government and ultimately the inquiry reported. The Government responded to the Balancing Rights report and came up with the mental welfare legislation, which has been criticised by some, and of course is being - - -
Mr Connolly: Mrs Carnell jumped on the passing band wagon.
MR BERRY: That is right, because she saw a vacant seat on it.
Mr Lamont: Half the time, if there are no vacant seats she pushes somebody else off.
Mr Humphries: Not on an ACT bus, because there are always vacant seats.
MR BERRY: The side comments are amusing. As a result of that, we have the mental welfare legislation and, as you are aware, the Social Policy Committee is due to report on that by the end of the year. I should say, too, that there was some criticism of the legislation, but nobody ever expected it to be easy. It is very difficult to come up with a piece of legislation in the mental health area.
Mrs Carnell: You said that it was wonderful legislation.
MR BERRY: We produced it, Mrs Carnell. You could never ever claim to have done anything on it. We will have to work through that issue, and we have to do it sensitively. It is very easy for people to leap on some political band wagon or other and frighten people out there in the community about legislation. Once the committee has reported, we will be in a better position to implement legislation in the ACT which in many ways will put us ahead of the rest of the country. It will certainly put us in a position to get rid of the legislation that has been criticised, and that is something we have all aimed to achieve - a major task for government and for this Assembly, I should add.
In relation to services, I am just trying to recall all the things we have done in various budgets.
Mr Moore: I actually asked you, "What are you going to do?".
MR BERRY: Hang on a minute. In the 1992-93 budget we provided a range of services for the mentally ill. We have been providing services which were not provided in the past out there in the community. In this last budget we provided a generic crisis service, which recognised that there were some areas we needed to address. I am happy that we are getting into those problems. We will closely examine all the issues raised in the Burdekin report. Where there are issues that relate to the Territory, and I have not seen that summarised in depth at this point, we will address them with the aim of coming out clean at the end of the process. I think the Burdekin report is a useful tool.
Mr Humphries: What are you going to do about it?
MR BERRY: As I said, we are going to examine it closely and, where there are areas that affect the Territory, we are going to deal with them. It is a sobering message to all of Australia, in my view. It is, nevertheless, a useful tool for the whole of the country to look at in terms of developing mental health services.
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