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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4164 ..

there are just too many places that are not being fixed up in a timely manner. It is not about the properties there; that is not the point. It is about poor management of the properties.

Turning to family services, most know about the chronology of events there. We are all aware of the things that have happened there. Three ministers have been involved, but the first two of them have not stood in this place to support the current minister, which is a shame. Mr Corbell and Mr Stanhope need to support Ms Gallagher—Mr Corbell, in particular, because he was the only minister to be briefed in late 2002. Why did the bells not ring for others when he was notified? I note that the Vardon report says that he did do something about it. Why did the bells not ring? There are many other things about that which I will not go into now, but we all know that the government knew about the matter and did nothing for too long.

Ms Gallagher: You’re a liar.

MRS BURKE: Mr Speaker, I would ask Ms Gallagher to withdraw that remark.

Ms Gallagher: I withdraw it, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms Gallagher.

MRS BURKE: There are many things that I could go on with, Mr Speaker, but I will not stray onto the substantive aspects. It is all about leadership.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.

MR CORNWELL (4.18): Adolf Hitler said that the great mass of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. Far be it from me to suggest that this government would be following that line, but I am very concerned that the people of the ACT may get the wrong impression about the government’s approach to aged care facilities and the provision of such facilities in the ACT.

Yesterday, as we know, a committee of this Assembly brought down a report on aged care and made nine very sensible recommendations. Among them were recommendations that the government fast-track the planning process for all sites currently under consideration for aged care places, immediately and substantially increase land allocations for residential aged care developments, streamline its planning processes—goodness me, that is a revolutionary thought!—and increase allocations for self-care or retirement villages.

It was reported in the Canberra Times of this morning that 500 people are on the aged care waiting list. As I said, I am very concerned that the people of the ACT may get the wrong impression about what this government has done to address aged care in the three years that it has been in government. Perhaps I should debate the way that it has increased the aged care crisis in the last three years, rather than attempting to explain what the government has not done. If I were to explain what the government has done, I would be making a very short speech here this afternoon.

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