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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4320 ..

MR CORNWELL (continuing):

I would like those members who received a copy of the Chief Minister's brief on the closure of aged day-care centres and the report of the inquiry to put their hands up. How many people here received those documents? Thank you, Ms Dundas-it is comforting to know that somebody else did.

Ms Dundas: Twenty-four hours ago.

MR CORNWELL: I found it rather strange, as I am sure you did, that this report came down in March 2002. It is now 11 December and we are seeing it for the first time. Why would that be? Why haven't we seen this report before? Perhaps we could examine it a little and I shall do so.

I have been informed that the genesis of this is that new Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, headed by Mr Wood, needed $2.2 million. They had to chop $200,000 out of the $300,000 aged day-care facilities, leaving $100,000, which they decided to use for transport. Unfortunately, the general inquiry into this matter was not as comprehensive as was claimed. The brief has this to say about this arrangement:

A steering committee of staff and consumers was involved in the review process. Unions were also invited to be participants on the steering committee but did not attend.

Mr Speaker, if you look at the membership on page 66 of this report, all you see is a long list of day centre people. Therefore, the comment about consumers being involved is a complete load of rubbish; it is not true. Certainly, there were a lot of staff from these centres but, in my opinion, there was not anybody who could be classed as consumers.

In addition to that, it is my understanding that the unions did not attend. The unions, particularly the Health and Research Employees Association, were not consulted. And that is not surprising, because selection criteria have been altered, jobs are being changed and all positions at all four of these centres must be applied for by all staff. Whether you are from Dickson, Belconnen, Tuggeranong or Narrabundah, you have to apply. So much for the job security I heard about this afternoon during debate on another matter in this Assembly.

The report of the inquiry contained 27 recommendations. I must admit that having looked at them, I was a bit surprised. At least the first 16 recommendations seemed to relate only to various aspects of new organising arrangements. For example, recommendation 3 states:

That further exploration is undertaken to establish reasons for lower proportions of males attending the day centres.

Maybe there are fewer males around these days; maybe they die earlier than females-I don't know. Recommendation 9 states:

That there be a review of current position classifications, job descriptions and essential qualifications.

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