Page 4443 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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MR CORNWELL: Turning now to recommendation 7, the Government was asked by the committee, and, I would suggest, by the entire community of the ACT, to "bring all possible pressure to bear on the Commonwealth with a view to ensuring that the number of nursing home beds required in the ACT is calculated on a basis that recognises the ACT's unique needs". In response we got some flim-flam which we knew already. The response states:
The Commonwealth formula for allocating nursing home and hostel bed approvals does not take into account the ACT's unique situation.
We said that ourselves. I do not know that this is the Government doing it better, Mr Lamont, to respond to your earlier interjection. However, it goes on to conclude:
The ACT Government will again raise the issue with the Commonwealth.
I would hope, as I am sure everybody else in the ACT would hope, that the Government does it better on this, and raises again and again, with increasing ferocity and increasing persistence, this question of nursing home beds here in the ACT. We are in a unique situation. It is about time the Commonwealth recognised it, and I would suggest that it is about time this ACT Government did something to make them recognise it.
I turn now to recommendation 9, which says:
The Government give consideration to a purpose built facility to cater for younger people with disabilities.
To my amazement, all we got from the Government was this:
The Government gives qualified agreement to this recommendation.
The Government goes on to state that it will "consider options, which could include purpose built accommodation". I would like to know, first of all, when it will consider those options to provide purpose built accommodation, because it has been brought to the Government's attention on numerous occasions. We are not necessarily talking about 19- and 20-year-olds; we are talking about people from 33 to 50 years of age who find it extremely depressing to be accommodated in these facilities with people who are over 65. Indeed, in a recent response the Minister for Health, Mr Berry, said that they were looking at various possibilities, and one of them was to develop group houses for young people with disabilities. He went on to say:
For such an option to be progressed it will be necessary for ACT Health and the Housing and Community Services Bureau to collaborate on the planning issues.
I await your response, Ministers.
Mr Connolly: We collaborate all the time.
MR CORNWELL: I await your response on housing for young people with disabilities.
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