Page 2869 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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This government is devoid of empathy and has a tin ear. It has only one interest—maintaining its own status. There has been a disrespectful approach on this issue. Pool users are rightly furious that the pool will be shut down with no alternative yet being offered. No-one disagrees that it is not the facility for the long term. The minister is trying to change the narrative here and make it sound like someone is lobbying for the pool to be open indefinitely. No-one is lobbying for that; that is untrue and is an attempt to create a narrative in order to wedge other people, rather than take responsibility for the government’s failings.
At the meeting we were invited to at the Canberra Health Services building in Woden this tin-eared government presented the idea that Arthritis ACT do not really know the exact conditions of their users. That is untrue. If the government do not know the exact conditions of the users it is because they have not been listening or have not been asking or have not even read the information already provided to them by that organisation.
Now we hear that the minister has back-pedalled and people will not be asked to provide referrals. The implication made at the meeting was that there would be some process where a clinician would check.
Ms Stephen-Smith: We listened to people!
MRS JONES: Yes—who would think that Arthritis ACT might actually know what their members’ needs are! Good lord! The government has taken a typically sinister approach towards that community group, saying, “Oh, Arthritis ACT has been conducting services that haven’t perhaps had the level of supervision they should have.” Who was funding them, minister? Who was telling them what was acceptable and what was not? Who was providing the funding for the services they provide? This government. So, minister, you should be apologising to Arthritis ACT if you think there has been a problem in the agreement with the ACT government, because it is your government that had that agreement with them.
Arthritis ACT have gone above and beyond, over and over again, to provide far more people with a service that they can use and get benefit from than the government was prepared to properly fund them for. We will be watching very carefully from this side because it is in the nature of this government to be abusive towards community groups when they stand up to them. Who would have guessed that, instead of thanking Arthritis ACT for going above and beyond for their members, this government would effectively accuse them of not providing enough safety as a result of the government’s own grant and support system.
The minister said she has apologised for what she called speaking at cross-purposes—which I call not listening, not understanding, not being that interested. Unfortunately, she has continued the same behaviour by allowing a report to be produced which does not have any solution in it. It does not even offer an interim solution. It does not even say, “Well, there’s a swimming pool here and a swimming pool here. We’re going to make sure they’re heated to 34 degrees and then we’re going to have them open X number of hours of the day.” Instead, they want to put the focus on Arthritis ACT and the good work they have been doing over many, many years.
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