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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1966 ..

I have been pointing out for some years the crisis in mental health, and the government is yet to wake up and actually do something practical about it. The government has known for a long time that people with mental illness are being kept in the criminal justice system. The government has known for a long time, or at least it has been told, that people with mental health problems had to be remanded in custody because there was no other option for them. Magistrates hated doing it, but what else could they do? The need for a secure facility for people with mental illness on remand or committal was blindingly obvious, but the government just did not get it.

Eventually, after unremitting pressure, the government was reluctantly forced to take an interest. So it did the only thing it knows and called for an inquiry. And hey presto, an interdepartmental working party identified problems, which the rest of the community had known about, and recommended changes in the services for those affected people.

So what has the government’s response to those recommendations been? You would not believe it, Mr Speaker: they will fund a feasibility study of the various options for high-security care for forensic mental health clients in the ACT. It’s hardly surprising that community groups are highly frustrated, and one of those groups, the Canberra Schizophrenia Fellowship, has called the delay another strategic plan fiasco. What have we got? As Mr Rod Quinn so succinctly observed recently on the ABC, the only new jobs the government has established are in the Legislative Assembly, right in the halls of the government.

If we look at community safety, the big-ticket item is more police. If you look at it in the budget context, the funding for 10 new sworn officers in 2004-05 needs to be put into context. It is a shame that Mr Hargreaves is not here. According to the Australian Federal Police Association, the national average of sworn officers per 100,00 head of population is 218. The ACT figure is 181. To increase the ACT situation to the national average would take—wait for it, Mr Speaker—an additional 121 sworn officers. And I am sure you don’t forget that Mr Hargreaves promised that a Labor government would meet that national average. What has this government done or achieved in community safety? Nothing. But the price keeps going up. Again, we are spending more and getting less.

In housing we see very little happening. While the continuation of the Canberra emergency accommodation service is welcome, it is not really an initiative. I also note, an injection of $5 million to support social housing. But as members would be aware, way back in 2002, Treasury offered Housing $10 million from the Treasurer’s Advance for social housing. Somewhere along the lines these funds were rebadged as being for fire safety, and we have never received a satisfactory answer as to how or why this change occurred. Moreover, in spite of the professed urgency more than two years ago, only $3 million—yes, only $3 million—of that $10 million has been spent thus far. So the government could go back to its original commitment and still have $3 million left for its alleged fire safety program. Again, nothing but delay, delay, delay.

In education we see a 5 per cent increase in total departmental spending, but with 910 fewer education spaces than last year. Indeed, we see that in one particular instance the government’s policy of paying more and getting less is reaching its logical conclusion. On page 339 of budget paper 4, we see declining enrolments in government schools providing an extra $2.263 million to the bottom line.

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