Page 2733 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 1994
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MENTAL HEALTH (TREATMENT AND CARE) BILL 1994
[COGNATE BILLS:
MENTAL HEALTH (CONSEQUENTIAL PROVISIONS) BILL 1994
CRIMES (AMENDMENT) BILL 1994]
Debate resumed from 16 June 1994, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with order of the day No. 3, Mental Health (Consequential Provisions) Bill 1994, and order of the day No. 4, Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1994? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 2 they may also address their remarks to orders of the day Nos 3 and 4.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.41): Madam Speaker, I think that everybody in this house, particularly those who were involved in the Social Policy Committee's exhaustive deliberations on this issue, will share with me an understanding of the difficulties that are part of coming forward with any comprehensive mental health legislation. I know that people on all sides of this house have taken this issue very seriously, right from the Balancing Rights paper that was commissioned when Mr Humphries was Minister for Health through to the Bill that is on the table today.
Any number of concerns were raised about the initial draft legislation when it was first considered during the public hearings of the Social Policy Committee. The Social Policy Committee did its best to address those issues, and I believe that the Bill that has come out of those proceedings is a very good one. It certainly does not address all the issues that were raised by the diverse groups that came before the committee; but by having a review mechanism - the sunset clause - it ensures that we put forward today something that will change the way in which people with mental health problems in the ACT are dealt with. One thing on which we all agree is that the current situation is simply unacceptable. It is unacceptable for anybody who has a mental health problem of whatever sort - whether it is a behavioural disorder or a treatable mental health condition - to be handled in the criminal justice system. I hope that nobody in this Assembly disagrees with that.
The Liberal Party will be supporting the Bill in its entirety, including all the amendments, this afternoon because we believe that, above all else, that matter must be addressed, and it must be addressed quickly. The concerns that we have - and they have been the subject of recommendations by the Social Policy Committee and have been taken on board by the Government - are with what appears to be a very real problem in this area with resourcing. One of the things that we looked at for many hours was the new Mental Health Tribunal - a body that the Liberal Party supports totally. Part of the Balancing Rights report dealt with how we were going to help people by going outside
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