Page 963 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007
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willingness to genuinely pursue arrangements for people with a disability in this community.
Justice Gallop found that the rights and interests of Canberrans with disabilities had not been adequately or effectively protected by the government, its policies or its systems. He found that the government had floundered, in his words, in terms of disability policies and disability planning. He identified the need for urgent change. And that is of course what the people with disabilities of this town got under a Labor government: change. In the wake of that devastating Gallop inquiry Labor responded with an historic injection of funding and a reform of the complete system itself. We responded with good policies delivered by effective institutions.
From 2001 to 2004-05—and Mr Smyth scoffs—per capita expenditure on disability services in the ACT grew by 69 per cent, nearly twice the jurisdictional rate of increase of 38 per cent. We increased funding for disability services as a result of your legacy, your neglect, your floundering, as Justice Gallop described it, with disability services. In 2006-07 our recurrent annual expenditure on disability services reached $54 million.
But we have not just injected money into the system. Policies and delivery mechanisms, the ingredients of good government, have undergone significant reform. Just today the Deputy Chief Minister has outlined some of the changes that we have initiated and continue to carry through with—changes that are reflected not just in policies and program funding but in the quality of life of hundreds of Canberrans. Disability ACT have worked hard and worked well to put in place strategies to minimise the barriers thrown up by disability and maximise opportunities for Canberrans.
One important area of reform has been that of creating opportunities for appropriate independence for those Canberrans requiring very high levels of support. The number of Canberrans covered by individual support packages has increased by 161, which represents an annual increase in funding of $6 million over the last three years. In the middle of last year a new community centre offering day options for Canberrans with disability opened on the north side. We are providing more than $7 million to provide better specialist support and treatment for those with high or complex needs. The taxi subsidy scheme has been reformed.
This is good governance; this is what good governance is about. It is not about pointing out, “Here is a bit of infrastructure that you should not have proceeded with.” Good governance is about delivering services to people. It is about funding and delivering services to people with disability. It is about funding and delivering services to people under the dental program. It is about ensuring that people within the ACT public service have wages and conditions that they are entitled to and that match those in other jurisdictions. That is what good governance is about.
Good governance is not about “did you build this?” or “did you build that?” Good governance is about meeting the needs of the community in the areas of greatest importance and significance for them—health, education, community safety—and we deliver, and you did not. Your record stands there for everybody to see. It is there in black and white. We have had a 92 per cent increase in mental health funding; a
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