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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2718 ..

MR MOORE: It might be obvious to you, Ms Tucker, but it is certainly not obvious to me, having sat in this seat for quite a long time.

Mr Speaker, it seems to me that what we have proposed here by Mr Rugendyke is a very sensible motion for beginning an inquiry to show where things are at, because there has been a huge amount of change since Ms Tucker did her inquiry. Since Mr Ken Patterson did his inquiry as health complaints commissioner there has been a huge amount of change. A whole series of recommendations that came out of that were incorporated into the disability services plan and also into what happens. I would like to go through some of those things.

I think it is worth reminding members of the Assembly that all of us are committed to improving the lot of people with disabilities in the ACT, to improving disability services in the ACT, and I think that a inquiry by the Health and Community Care Committee would assist us in that regard. I have said in the past that people with disabilities make many valuable contributions as citizens of our community, and I think that is most important. It is also important that the community, in return, provides services and support to maximise their quality of life and their contributions.

I would hope that the inquiry that is provided for in the motion before us now will be conducted and that the committee will take the approach of the glass being half full, rather than Ms Tucker's approach of the glass being half empty. Over the past few years the ACT government has been working very hard to improve the range of services available to disability clients and has substantially increased funding and services in this area.

It should be remembered that that happened at a time when we were trying to bring the budget into surplus. We have done that, but we were trying to increase funding at a time when we had a deficit budget. For example, an additional $1 million was provided for disability services last financial year, and this year over $1.5 million has been provided for disability services in the areas of respite care for aged carers who have been caring for more than 30 years, special therapies for children, special needs transport and supported accommodation. That has taken expenditure on disability services in the health area alone to the highest ever at around $30 million per annum.

This year there has been a real focus by the government on building up social capital. That has been particularly relevant in the health area and in the disability services sector, where partnerships with community-based health services are integral to servicing the needs of clients with disabilities. The majority of the support for people with disabilities is provided by their families. Individuals and families are assisted to varying degrees by friends, by neighbours, by communities and, most importantly from our perspective, by governments.

Formal services to people with disabilities are provided primarily by over 40 non-government agencies as well as government agencies, of which ACT Community Care is the largest provider of services. That is, a range of alternative support options are available through providers who can offer quality and value for money, and indeed they do. That enables individuals to access models which meet their support needs. A national policy direction to move clients with special needs from institutions to the community

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