Page 1674 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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providing specialist, professional and non-judgemental sexual health care to those who need it.
Again, I thank and congratulate Ms Cheyne for her work in this area, including on the motion debated today.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.42): I thank Ms Cheyne for bringing forward this motion today regarding the work that has been done by the Canberra Sexual Health Centre and Canberra sexual health services across Canberra. Members have spoken about the service provided at the Sexual Health Centre at building 5 of the Canberra Hospital complex but I want to put on notice that this building is earmarked for demolition to make way for the SPIRE complex and that all the current occupants of building 5 are waiting to hear where they will have to move to. Sometime over the next 12 to 18 months the Sexual Health Centre will have to close their current site and move to the new site, and I hope that this is done with as little disruption as possible. It would be good if the ACT government could give all the occupants of building 5 notice of what will be happening so that they can start to plan for their future.
Ms Cheyne calls for the ACT government to work with stakeholder groups and sector leaders. And to some extent this is already happening but there is no reason why we cannot do more in this space. Ms Cheyne’s motion in effect calls on the government to develop a sexual health strategy. Unfortunately this government does not have a very good track record in developing health strategies. For example, the drugs strategy was five years out of date before it was finally replaced. And the government has had problems updating its policies in a timely manner. It did impact on its accreditation last year, and this is mainly due to the ongoing chaos in the health portfolio. This has happened under not only this minister but previous ministers as well.
Queensland and New South Wales have sexual health strategies. The government could probably begin by looking at what those states are offering as the jumping off point. Last year, the federal government published its own bloodborne viruses (BBV) and sexually transmissible infections (STI) strategy 2018-2022, and this strategy has been endorsed by all Australian health ministers including Minister Fitzharris. The federal government strategy could also form part of the basis of a strategy to be adopted in the ACT.
Ms Cheyne suggests that we should look at the issue of a sexual health week, which is laudable, but in my view sexual health weeks should be adopted on a national basis. I think that you would get more bang for your buck. Ms Cheyne has talked about the effectiveness of the sexual health promotions here and how they would be made more effective with an integrated sexual health week. I think that you would do even better if you had a national approach to such ventures. This would ensure that there is consistent promotion across the nation and ensure that the messages get through. Otherwise you potentially end up with a hodgepodge of health weeks across the country with little consistency of message.
In conclusion, I think the most important thing that the minister for health can do in this area is give certainty to the Canberra Sexual Health Centre about its ongoing accommodation needs.
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