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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4450 ..

MRS BURKE (continuing):

Another serious matter which has come to the fore recently-one which we should consider in this place-is respite care. I have received, and I am sure that the minister and other members of this place have received, many letters and representations about the level of respite care, particularly about some of the services that may be dropping off. I do understand that an extension to February 2004 has been given for a service such as FaBRiC. That still leads one to question whether there is going to be a gap in service provision to the people who are currently receiving respite care. What is going to happen there? Things are very much up in the air; there is an air of uncertainty.

I do not want to spend a great deal of time on developing this issue now, but I do flag that it is my intention to consider in more detail at a later stage the important role of families and carers in working with people with disabilities as we as a community seek to enhance the quality of life of people with disabilities and we seek to extend the contribution that these people can make and, furthermore, want to make within our community.

I look forward to seeing ways in which the ACT government will collaborate with the Commonwealth government and, to the extent that it is necessary, with the New South Wales government in implementing the essence of the disability agreement to full extent over the next five years. I am really pleased that the minister has reached a resolution on the agreement and I thank him for his report.

MS TUCKER (5.12): It sounds as though it has been another rather torturous experience for the minister to get to the point of signing this agreement and the bilateral agreement. It is disappointing, once again, to note the lack of preparedness of the federal government to acknowledge the unmet need in this area and their preparedness to be so miserly with the funding of the states and territories.

This area is one in which we have had many reports, including national reports. We know that people with a disability are vulnerable members of our community. I do not need to say that. Everybody recognises it and they all make the right statements, but when it comes down to it the federal government is not prepared to put money where its mouth is, leaving the ACT and the states in a difficult situation. I note that the results of this agreement have seen an annual growth of 4.39 per cent in funding from the federal government. That is hardly more than the CPI figure. It is not what I would call growth funding. It is an insult when you look at the evidence in terms of unmet need.

The ACT government has an average annual growth projection of 6.84 per cent, so it is doing better than the Commonwealth government. That is the growth figure for the ACT for the term of this agreement. I commend the government for giving more, but it is still not enough, which leaves us in the difficult situation of having to mop up after the federal government. I would still say to this government, given the financial situation in which we find ourselves, that it has a responsibility to pick up on the federal government's lack of commitment to these very vulnerable members of our community by giving a greater allocation yet again.

Mrs Burke spoke about the objectives of the Commonwealth/State/Territory Disability Agreement being great. Yes, they are great. That is why the federal government's actions

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