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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (4 November) . . Page.. 3553 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

The fourth is compensation for the decline in private health insurance. Compensation to base funding is necessary for additional costs on the public health system due to the decline in the number of people covered by and using private health insurance, together with an automatic annual adjustment for this effect during the life of the new Medicare agreement.

The fifth principle is high-level performance indicators. The new agreement must have a limited number of high performance or outcome measures. The sixth is information sharing. To assist in the planning, evaluation and delivery of health care in Australia, improved information collection and sharing practices should be established between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories.

The seventh is flexibility. A single funding grant should be provided to give maximum flexibility to States and Territories to meet demand and provide better outcomes for patients. The agreement should promote integrated, coordinated health care by eliminating rigid program barriers and complex reporting and management requirements. The eighth principle is incentives to promote innovation. On achievement of adequate base funding and guaranteed indexation, the Commonwealth should provide additional incentives funding to promote real reform in the health system. These incentives funds should be provided to the States and Territories for agreed innovative trials and programs to overcome existing structural and service delivery barriers.

The leaders also agreed on 11 points to move forward on the issue of illicit drugs. Mr Speaker, members would obviously now be aware that, on Sunday, the Prime Minister announced the national illicit drugs strategy, with the Commonwealth to provide $87.5m over three years for drug education, treatment and law enforcement, as the first stage of a national response to the problem. I was pleased to note that there was $21.8m to be provided for the establishment and operation of new non-government treatment facilities and that $4.8m will be provided for a community grant for local drug prevention and education projects. As I stated only yesterday, the ACT Government will be seeking to access some of these funds, particularly in helping to establish treatment and rehabilitation facilities for teenagers in Canberra, where there is a clearly identified service gap. A total of $1.3m will also be made available for research into alternative treatment options for heroin dependence. As members will be aware, the ACT is participating in trials of naltrexone and buprenorphine, in association with Victoria.

Mr Speaker, I do not propose to debate the contents of the Prime Minister's statement today because I believe that there are other, equally important issues that demand our attention. Suffice to say that I am reluctant to refer to our efforts as somehow being a war on drugs or a moral issue. Mr Speaker, I believe that this issue is more about compassion than morals or wars. We still have a long way to go before we, as a community and even as an Assembly, can be satisfied that we are doing anywhere near enough to address this very real problem.

Mr Speaker, I should also mention that State and Territory leaders were also extremely concerned about the implications of the Commonwealth's aged care reforms, and we resolved to discuss our concerns with the Prime Minister at COAG on Friday. This Friday, I am due to attend the Domestic Violence Summit, the COAG meeting and the Treaties Council meeting. At the Domestic Violence Summit, heads of government

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