Page 1873 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2006
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system gets the service they deserve and need: that is fixing the system. It is interesting. Mr Gentleman went on to talk about mental health. Here is a report from 27 May where Justice Ken Crispin goes to town on the mental health system in this city. It says:
… Justice Ken Crispin condemned the way in which those with mental health problems had been abandoned and how the criminal justice system was expected to sort out those problems.
It says that the judge’s remarks were made during sentencing procedures involving a 28-year-old individual. It continues:
… a mentally disabled Melba resident, who held up a taxi driver with a knife in February so he could be arrested and sent to the Belconnen Remand Centre for some “time-out”.
Isn’t that interesting? I have been calling for a time-out facility for four years. The judges and the police, just about everybody, say that we need a time-out facility, but is there a time-out facility in the budget? No, there is not. Now we have a minister who is not even across her portfolio. It is really interesting. She was asked a question by Mr Pratt today about job cuts in her portfolio and she got up and said, “No, you have got it wrong. There are no job cuts in my portfolio.”
Ms Gallagher: I didn’t say that.
MR SMYTH: Minister, I think you should look at page 146 of this year’s budget paper 4. The minister says, “I did not say that.” Can I quote what you said, minister? “There will not be cuts of 82 staff in health.” That is what you said.
Ms Gallagher: Go on.
MR SMYTH: I will go on in a minute, “There will not be cuts of 82 staff in health because there are other initiatives that require employment in health.” Okay, that is the minister’s answer. “It will not be at the service delivery end. We will look at streamlining costs.” So there will not be cuts because there are other initiatives that require employment in health and it will not be at the service delivery end, which indicates there are cuts, because we are going to look at streamlining costs.
You cannot have it both ways. It is interesting when you get to page 146 of BP4. You should read your documents before you publish them. At the bottom of page 146 is the head count, staffing. What is its expected outcome for this financial year? It is 4,849. What is it for next year, the 2006-07 year? Just keep in mind that it is 4,649 this year. For next year it is 4,767.
It is a smaller number, which normally means there has been a cut. The number has gone down. In fact it is a cut of 82. If it is not a cut you should say so, Ms Gallagher, and you should explain why you and the Treasurer and Chief Minister put your names to a budget, a document, that is wrong. That is the problem. We are going on your document, it is there in black and white. It is going down. It goes down 82. But no, it is not.
These are the numbers that we get to deal with with this government. There it is in black and white. Eighty-two are going but no, they are not going. That is the problem. It is
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