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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (14 December) . . Page.. 3014 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Today, we have a terrible funding impasse and nobody wants to know about it. The ACT Government is strapped for cash and has no spare dollars to help out the accommodation services which day in, day out have to squeeze a quart from a pint pot. The Commonwealth? `Not our worry' they say. `Accommodation services are within the purview of the Territory's Government'.

As I said in a letter to the ACT's Chief Minister recently,

"I fully appreciate that the problem we are now facing is not of the Territory Government's making, but the reality is that many people with disabilities are being hurt, and sometimes, through lack of support, being exposed to risk."

There is currently a Review being undertaken of the Commonwealth States Disability Agreement and it is hoped that this issue will be addressed.

Mr Speaker, the Commonwealth-State Disability Agreement to which the ACT is a signatory is, as Ms Follett said, a five-year agreement between the Commonwealth and State/Territory governments providing for the clarification of Commonwealth, State and Territory responsibilities in the field of disability support. The agreement with the ACT was signed on 31 July 1991 and is in effect for a period of five years. The agreement included a provision that it would be reviewed prior to any new agreement. Before any such agreement is negotiated, the current CSDA is being evaluated nationally during the 1995-96 financial year. At the spring 1994 conference of the Standing Committee of Community Services and Income Security Administrators, the SCCSISA, held on 25 October 1994, the CSDA evaluation was considered. In October 1994 the chair of the SCCSISA wrote to the then ACT Minister for Housing and Community Services to seek approval for the evaluation strategy. The evaluation strategy was approved by the then Minister for Housing and Community Services in December 1994. Mr Speaker, the evaluation process for the agreement is well under way and was approved under the previous Government. It would appear that the then Minister did not pass on that information. In the communication from the chair of the SCCSISA it was stated:

The purpose of the evaluation is to indicate the efficiency and effectiveness of the CSDA as an initial arrangement for the rationalisation of administrative arrangements for the provision of disability services; and report to the Ministers on the outcomes of the CSDA and its implications for further agreements in this sector.

The methodology for the evaluation proposed a three-phase approach which includes initial data collection, development of an issues paper for public consultation, and final reporting to Ministers. Within the evaluation strategy, peak disability organisations and joint advisory bodies at both Commonwealth and State/Territory level are being consulted. Senior officers of the ACT Department of Health and Community Care have also been participating in the development and progress of the evaluation strategy through the disability services subcommittee of the SCCSISA.

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