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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1260 ..

MRS LITTLEWOOD (continuing):

that we were having a go at the Prime Minister. It is a great pity, in fact, that the people opposite did not have a go at their Labor Government when they dropped 18,000 people during their reign in Federal Parliament. It does not bother me at all. I am not an ideologue. I am quite prepared to have a go at someone.

Ms McRae: Run as an Independent then. If you are not an ideologue, just run as an Independent.

MRS LITTLEWOOD: I am not an ideologue. I have an open mind, Ms McRae. I have mentioned additional funding of $250,000 for dental services. The funding for the re-establishment of a sobering-up shelter, with separate arrangements for adults and for youth, is a very important aspect. There will be extra funding for a youth health worker to target drug and alcohol problems amongst Aboriginal young people. Other initiatives include an expanded role for the Health Complaints Unit and prolonged care cottages offering community-based housing for young people with disabilities. Access to acute hospital beds at Canberra Hospital will improve with the commissioning of a step-down convalescent unit of 20 beds in December 1997 - something I think we are all rather pleased with.

The hospital in the home program will be expanded to 600 patients in 1997-98, following the success of a pilot program during the 1996-97 period. This important program provides specialist care to clients in their own home to improve quality of care and reduce the length of stay in hospital. An extra team is to be given to the valuable community midwives program to cover the increase in the number of community midwife births from 175 in this financial year to 240 in the coming financial year - an increase of 37 per cent. School holiday and after-school care programs for families with children with a disability are to be developed and funded as part of an expansion of respite care services in this year's budget.

Other important initiatives in disability services include the allocation of $1m for the construction of a specialised behavioural management unit to help people with an intellectual disability to develop communication and social skills; six community-based houses, providing a new accommodation option for 24 younger people with disabilities; and a total of $630,000 over two years for ongoing reforms within the disability program, including improvements to staff training and needs assessment of clients.

We will spend $11.2m on capital works in the community health area, covering refurbishment of the pathology building at Canberra Hospital at a cost of $7.5m over three years, refurbishment of the Phillip Health Centre at a cost of $5m over three years, major upgrading of toilets and bathrooms at Calvary Hospital, completion of a new child and family health service residential unit at Curtin and the construction of family care cottages in Gungahlin and Conder. I am open-minded. I mentioned other people's electorates, not just my own. In summary, record numbers to be treated in the ACT public hospital system and new initiatives to shift the focus of services to more community and home-based care are the key elements of the 1997-98 budget. I commend the budget to the house.

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