Page 3838 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Labor Party has not spoken about. It is all very well to talk about 35 per cent of women in parliament; but, unless we allow women who have younger children actually to participate and be part of the process, there is no way in our current political system that women will get to the top. It is an issue that must be addressed.
The other issues that the Chief Minister addressed in her statement included the issue of carers - something that we have heard the Chief Minister speak a lot about in this International Year of the Family. She speaks about respite care. I am sure that every member of this Assembly will agree with me - and I know that Ms Szuty will - that one of the issues that simply have not been addressed by this Assembly is the issue of respite care. Lots of words have been written, but the issue has not been addressed. There is no more respite care now than there was before the International Year of the Family. All we see is the waiting lists getting longer and the problem getting worse.
Another issue to do with carers that has not been addressed is the issue of dementia care. We know that many State governments now are funding, or at least partially funding, dementia care in their State. We would all agree that the Federal Government has badly let down people with dementia and their families by not changing the way that dementia patients in our nursing homes and in dementia care facilities are funded. I would hope that nobody on either side of this Assembly, including the Independents, would argue with me on that. The ACT Government cannot wipe their hands of this really important issue. It has been addressed in the States; we know already that one dementia care facility has had to change its funding base and its style of care because of the difficulty of funding such establishments. We know that Eabrai Lodge, a very impressive facility, is currently having exactly the same problems. It is something that must be addressed.
There is the issue of dementia patients in the home, people who are being looked after at home by their carers, by their families. The problems of in-home respite care and facility based respite care have not been addressed in this International Year of the Family. I do not think that that is acceptable, and I am interested that the Chief Minister did not raise that at all in her statement, even though she talked about professional training for carers of the aged. Certainly, training is important; but, without respite care, without a capacity even to go out and do the shopping in certain circumstances, the present situation is simply not acceptable.
The Chief Minister went on to talk about innovative employer supported child-care initiatives and so on. Unfortunately, as I have said already, those innovative employer based child-care facilities are being killed by red tape and by government requirements of a certain amount of space. There are all sorts of issues which are not necessarily tied to quality child-care but which certainly stop any flexibility in the workplace. Again, it is important for us all to stop the rhetoric when it comes to the issue of women, women's place in society and women's capacity - - -
Mr Connolly: And get a woman in for the casual vacancy in Belconnen; that is what we should do.
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