Page 430 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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us about how people were skimping on their medication because they simply cannot afford to buy enough medication, how they were skimping on their food and buying and eating less because they simply cannot afford food. That is why we proposed a one-off payment for single age pensioners to help address their needs in these strained economic times.
Also in relation to groups in the community which are particularly in need and where a little investment would particularly pay off over the long haul, there is our proposal for $1 million over four years to Autism Asperger ACT Inc. Here is a group that is crying out for assistance and for early intervention. All the literature, wherever you go in relation to autism and Aspergers, says that the earlier you diagnose the problem and the earlier you intervene, especially on a one-on-one basis, the better the outcome for the children will be.
If you only want to look at it in terms of economic rationale—and Mr Barr likes to claim that he is the only economic rationalist in this place—if you invest in children with Aspergers and autism early in their life, the cost of their education would be much less and the cost of maintaining them in the community over their life would be much less. It is the humane thing to do; it is the right thing to do; it is the economic thing to do.
Again, the Stanhope government—the Minister for Health, the minister for education, the minister for disability services—will not listen to the cries, the pleas for assistance, from Autism Asperger ACT Inc, which is a matter of considerable shame to this government.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (9.33): I will quickly respond. I will not respond to all comments. Mr Hanson made some comments on health and health not having any money in this appropriation. All of our health initiatives are funded out of the growth envelope in the last financial year. The new initiatives for health will be funded out of the growth envelope for next financial year. In addition, we have $300 million worth of capital works being commenced, and we have received $10 million from the federal government in this financial year to deal with some of the pressures in our emergency departments. We felt that, considering that we were trying to keep this bill rather small and targeted, health and the health needs, and certainly the activity that is occurring in health, are being met through the current appropriations and some additional expenditure that we are getting from the commonwealth.
In relation to the emergency relief for charity and welfare groups, Mrs Dunne was going on about why we did not see this and that they are always under pressure. You could probably say that about every area of government service delivery—if you had more money available all the time, there are a whole range of areas in which you could spend it, and none of us would disagree that this is one of those areas.
I point out that in every appropriation, certainly since I have been in the cabinet, we have increased funding to community organisations. In fact, in the most recent budget we increased considerably the funding going to UnitingCare Kippax in recognition of some of the services and pressures that their organisation was dealing with. They will
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