Page 2691 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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early intervention and prevention, we will not be seeing any money from the commonwealth at all.
On maternity services, the Greens again have a go at us for not funding independent midwives in the territory. We have looked at this issue, and I am not going to accept that it is the ACT government’s fault. We cannot purchase insurance. If we cannot purchase insurance, we cannot protect the independent midwives in the community. They cannot practise without insurance. We just cannot do it if we do not have insurance. For one claim of a negligent birth or an accident at birth, the payout is around $10 million. It would be negligent of the government to encourage a practice that cannot be insured.
In fact, at health ministers meetings this was discussed. We are, as a group of ministers, committed to looking at this issue a lot closer to see what we do. We agree with the Greens. Midwives have fantastic results. Women at home giving birth have fantastic results. But in this day and age, in order to do that in a safe environment, you need insurance. We will commit to looking at what we can do. But if you cannot purchase insurance, you cannot purchase insurance and there is nothing further you can do about it.
Again, I am not going to cop that the problem with CAHMA is the government’s fault. I sat here and listened to her saying that we were being heavy handed with that organisation. Dr Foskey accused us of turning up at the Griffin Centre with lawyers and trying to kick CAHMA out. That was not the case, Dr Foskey. The case was that the AIDS Action Council organised a meeting at the Griffin Centre as they were refusing to auspice CAHMA. Because of the difficulties they had had in auspicing the organisation, they did not want to auspice it any longer. They believed the lease arrangements were theirs. They turned up to speak at the Griffin Centre. They brought their own lawyers but they requested that the health department attend. The health department attended with them for that difficult meeting, but it certainly was not the government heavy-handing anybody.
I put on the record that we have increased mental health spending by $25 million over our last five budgets. It has gone from $27 million in 2001-02 to $52 million this year. There has been significant investment. Can I take my next 10 minutes?
MR SPEAKER: Yes.
MS GALLAGHER: I will not take my full 10 minutes. The ALP, in fact, at our famous conference this year, committed to trying to spend 12 per cent of the health budget on mental health by 2012. We have made that commitment. I will work hard for that commitment to be delivered. It is an important one. I agree with speakers that the pressure in mental health is there. We need to look at how we are providing it and work with the community. The mental health services plan will assist us with that information, how we provide it and what we need to provide. We need to provide a new psychiatric unit. I am increasingly convinced that we need to look at step-up, step-down and time-out facilities.
I am interested in what Mr Smyth had to say and I will have a look at that. Pay parking is in place now. I do not think the introduction of pay parking is ever popular. I had the misfortune of having to visit the hospital a couple of times in the last week.
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