Page 998 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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commonwealth government at a capital level, and that the ACT has committed to funding the recurrent costs of the expansion of Clare Holland House.
Palliative care is about more than Clare Holland House. The committee has written extensively about respite, about the need to care for carers and the need to care for staff. We also looked as extensively as we could into the issues of palliative care in aged-care settings. I am pleased to note—and members will see this on the last page of the report—that the committee wrote to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, raising issues about the need for a proper look at palliative care in an aged-care setting. In many ways this is an area of funding which is beyond the responsibility of the ACT. It is not the responsibility of states and territories. We did note and are very supportive of the trials through Palliative Care ACT and Clare Holland House of assistance for palliative care nurses in the aged-care setting, which is an initiative of the government which we strongly support.
There are a couple of issues that the committee touched on only lightly, where we believe there needs to be more work. Elder abuse was what might be called a leitmotiv through the evidence and the submissions. In some senses, there were never really hard proposals or recommendations that were put to the committee about how to address issues of elder abuse. The committee has made suggestions for further inquiry in that space.
One of the things that was surprising in the context of this report was that there was only very passing reference to palliative care for children and adolescents. The committee has suggested that the health committee inquire further into that. It was easy for us to do it because the health committee was a neat subset of the end of life care committee. Some people needed persuading that it was a really good idea, but I do think it is a very good idea. I think that there is some demand in the community for more child and adolescent palliative care, rather than sending our vulnerable families from Canberra to Sydney.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the people of Canberra and the wider community who contributed with their heart and soul to this very important inquiry. It was difficult for people to make submissions and it was difficult on many occasions for people to tell us their story. It was tough. It is clear that people who work in palliative care, for instance, are hardworking, dedicated and possibly not appreciated enough; there are recommendations about that in here as well.
I also want to place on record my thanks to the staff of the committee office who worked so diligently on this, and my appreciation to the members of the committee who worked so collegiately together. I am flattered by Ms Cheyne’s comments, but I hope that she has actually learnt something: just because one can be adversarial in this place, it does not mean that we are always ogres. We do have hearts, and we do believe in good outcomes for important committee inquiries. Getting a good outcome in this inquiry was why I asked to be on the committee in the first place. I am very proud of the work that was done and of the quality of the work that we are presenting here today.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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