Page 234 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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At the election the Canberra Liberals proposed enhancing self-management of chronic disease in the ACT by providing an additional $200,000 a year to help fund groups supporting self-management of chronic disease in the ACT. This would support community groups to deliver information, run self-management courses, provide resources and support people self-managing chronic illness in the community.
Again it is disappointing that the Greens and the Labor Party failed to support this initiative. Instead, what we are seeing is this $300,000 proposal from the Greens that is going to review a stand-alone birthing centre that the minister has already ruled out supporting. So what I would say to the minister is: why are you spending $300,000 and why did you support something that you have already ruled out that the Greens proposed, but something that would actually provide support to people managing their chronic illness, something that we know is a problem in line with the motion that has been put here today by Ms Porter, you have ruled out? What an odd set of priorities this government has.
Although Ms Porter’s motion is one that we support and has good words in it, the difference between the rhetoric in that motion and the reality on the ground is vast. This government says the right things. The motion is worthy. But what we see is that when it comes to the rubber hitting the road and choices that the government can make, and a choice here clearly between $300,000 to support a feasibility study into something she has already ruled out, or the Canberra Liberals’ initiative of $200,000 to support the self-management of chronic illness, which is directly in line with the motion being brought forward by the minister’s backbencher, what do we see? She supports the Greens.
Is that ideological? It is odd, because it is actually contrary to her ideology, which is not to support a birthing centre. So what is it? It would seem that she has put that $300,000 in as a measure to secure government ahead of where the money should be being spent in our community, which is to support preventative health and people who are suffering from chronic illness.
I have long argued for better preventative health measures in the ACT. I acknowledge the steps where they are being taken. I acknowledge that work is being done. But I think the glaring gap is that we do not have a strategy. There is a national strategy. It is a comprehensive national strategy with seven steps that are being taken, and it has a number of key outcomes that are sought from that: to halt and reverse the rise in overweight and obesity; to reduce the prevalence of daily smoking to 10 per cent or less; to reduce the proportion of Australians who drink at short-term risky high levels to 14 per cent and the proportion of Australians who drink at long-term risky high levels to seven per cent; to contribute to “close the gap” target for Indigenous people, reducing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
There is a strategy federally. There is a task force federally. The Canberra Liberals proposed this at the election and the Greens and the Labor Party rejected it. I simply do not understand why, and it was unfathomable to me that at the Public Health Association debate in front of over 100 people, where we were talking about the need
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