Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 575 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, with regard to the professorial position, Mr Berry would also know that the ACT Government has no input whatsoever into the professor that Sydney University will appoint, I am told, very shortly. How Sydney University organises its professors, or its associate professors for that matter, is up to Sydney University. Our clinical school is but an arm of Sydney University. But, as I said in my speech, I am told that an appointment is due to be made very shortly. We have certainly been disappointed that Sydney University has taken so long to make this appointment - - -

Mr Berry: As an associate professor or as a professor?

MRS CARNELL: It is very much up to them. We have no input whatsoever into that, and Mr Berry knows that very well. Personally, I do not really mind whether it is a professor or an associate professor, as long as we get the right person, Mr Speaker. If the right person is appointed, then I will be happy, and I am sure that everybody in this place will be happy as well.

Mr Speaker, we have heard Mr Berry speak a lot about the disagreement which occurred between me and the then Acting Director of Mental Health Services. It is interesting, Mr Speaker, that it was not between me and the then Acting Director of Mental Health Services; it was between the then Acting Director of Mental Health Services and the legislation that was passed in this place. Mr Berry knows this full well. I have been reluctant to talk about it in this place, but Mr Berry has forced the issue. The director has made it very clear in the media and everywhere else that he does not believe that our mental health legislation is appropriate. He does not believe that people with mental illness who are not diagnosable and treatable should be in our mental health services at all. He has every right to that opinion.

It means that that vast group of people in the middle with personality disorders - all of those sorts of people who cannot be diagnosed as having schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or whatever, who fall in that middle area - the particular person involved believes, should be handled in our criminal justice system. Personally, I will never agree with that. I believe that those people should be treated in our community-based mental health areas, and I am disappointed that Mr Berry does not see it that way. In the end, I think, the Director of Mental Health Services resigned; but there is no doubt that there was a disagreement.

I do not want our Mental Health Service to be run by somebody who believes that people with personality disorders should be treated in our criminal justice system. It is simply not acceptable, in my view. By the way, it is not just in my view; it was in the view of, I thought, everyone in this house. When we passed the mental health legislation, we all indicated that we believed that people who have mental health problems, whether or not they be diagnosable or treatable, should not be treated in our criminal justice system, if humanly possible. I stand by that every inch of the way. If Mr Berry believes that that is wrong, he should stand up and say so, rather than running innuendos on this sort of thing.

Mr Berry: Relevance, relevance! We are not talking about the legislation.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .