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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1264 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

and went to the election on a promise of an additional $1 million minimum for disability services. That is a promise we will keep.

Mr Smyth: That is actually less than we delivered.

MR STANHOPE: You had no intention of delivering an additional $1 million; you argued against it. We promised an additional $1 million over and above the budget allocation for next year. That was our promise, and we will deliver on it to disability services. It is arrant nonsense that we are considering this in isolation-outside the scope of the budget circle. We are not.

There is an additional $1 million there to meet the need in areas we know can be better facilitated for people with a disability. We have responded to that need. We campaigned on it, and the people of Canberra responded to our recognition of the needs of these groups in our community. That is our commitment.

Look at the commitment of the federal Liberals. There is a communique, jointly signed by the states and territories and the Commonwealth, delivered when Mr Moore was minister for health, in which the federal Liberal government promised him-contrary to what is being said today by Amanda Vanstone and supported by Mr Smyth-that they would commit certain levels of base funding and certain levels of growth. That is now being trashed by Senator Vanstone and Peter Costello. Those are the facts. That is what has happened over the last couple of weeks.

Senator Vanstone will not commit to that communique. I was at a disability services ministers meeting in which she explicitly would not commit to the communique or that commitment. Peter Costello revealed in documents released in April that that commitment will not be kept. This is not scaremongering; these are the facts. The federal Liberals have committed themselves to reducing funding to the states and territories for disability services. That is what they have done, and that was the deal struck.

Mr Humphries: Were the Labor governments doing this?

MR STANHOPE: Well, some of them were. They were half-and-half at that stage. It is since then that the wheels have dropped off for you and the whole community has realised how crook you were. Yes, this is a significant broken promise for a group of people who deserve to have those promises and commitments kept. It was a serious commitment. The states and territories entered into it; Michael Moore, on your behalf, entered into it; Amanda Vanstone and Peter Costello have broken it. Those are the facts. It is explicit. It is in writing. There is no doubt about it.

This issue is being progressed appropriately, and I conclude on this point. I responded to the Gallop report by establishing an Office of Disability, by appointing Anne Cross, a noted Australian expert on the delivery of disability services who is almost universally respected in Australia. I have not heard a voice of criticism about my establishing the Disability Reform Group. It is accepted by the sector here in toto; they all accept the wisdom of that move. That group will inform the government's response, as it should, and we will act on those recommendations. That is what we have done.

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