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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2915 ..

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, those opposite said, "You are the Minister". Yes, I am now, and I am responsible for what happens under me; but I am certainly not responsible for secret reports that were commissioned by the previous Government.

Mental Health Funding

MS TUCKER: My question is to Mrs Carnell as Minister for Health. Mrs Carnell, in the last "Budget at a Glance" budget paper, under "Health Budget Highlights", you announced $250,000 extra for funding in mental health. Can you confirm for the Assembly that this is additional expenditure for mental health and not money which has to be found in savings through reducing the number of residents at Watson or Hennessy House?

MRS CARNELL: I can guarantee that it is new money.

MS TUCKER: It is new money. Okay. I have a supplementary question. Can you also confirm that any savings that do come from closing beds at Hennessy or Watson will go into supporting new and extra services in the ACT?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, we are not confident as to what sort of savings we are going to get, because it is not done as a savings exercise at all. The idea was to allow people to move if they wanted to. I understand, after doing some more research on your questions from yesterday and the day before, that, of the five people who have relocated, three already had their names down on the Housing Trust waiting list because they had already made a decision to move prior to the new policy coming into place. Mr Speaker, the approach we are taking here is to ensure that those people are adequately supported in the community. We are not confident that moving from Hennessy and Watson to supported places in the community will be a significant cost saver at all, and that is certainly not the motivation. The motivation is to create more choice and more options for people with disabilities and people with mental health problems in the community in terms of their residential accommodation.

Health and Community Care Service Board

MS McRAE: My question is to the Chief Minister in her capacity as Minister for Health. On 27 June last year, during the debate on the Health and Community Care Services Bill the Chief Minister said, in relation to the costs of the board set up under that Bill:

... the costs of the four people on the board that we will be paying will vary between $6,504 and $11,136 a year ...

Exact figures were supplied, not ballpark figures, and this was a key factor in convincing members to support the Bill. On 22 May this year the Chief Minister signed an interim determination under the Remuneration Tribunal Act setting out the fees for the chair and the board members. The chair is to receive $30,000 per annum and the board members

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