Page 2874 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019

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They know that there was an increased need for hydrotherapy and they have known this for five years, but they did nothing about it. They have done nothing about it. The issue is that we are now stuck in a place where this government is going to decide what is a suitable alternative arrangement, not the users. It is not the people who depend upon hydrotherapy for their quality of life. This government is going to say, “Take it or leave it.”

Mr Wall: I wouldn’t trust them.

MRS DUNNE: You cannot trust them. You cannot trust them because they constantly fit the narrative to suit themselves. They fit the narrative to suit themselves and they show no regard for the arthritis sufferers on the south side of the ACT and they show no regard for the hydrotherapy users.

This is why we will not give up on this. This is why we have been calling over and over again for the government to do some work and to find an alternative. The minister has hinted at things today. She has said, “We’ll go out to the market.” I hope they do go out to the market. I hope they will test what the community wants and what the community is prepared to provide.

When they do that, they had better be cooperative with the community. They had better ensure that if the community wants to take this on, they have the capacity to do it. If Arthritis ACT can come up with a solution that will save the ACT taxpayers money, this government needs to get out of their way, because they have been in their way for five years now and arthritis sufferers are suffering. I will not be accused of misleading the arthritis community. I will stand here and proudly advocate for them over and over again until they get a suitable purpose-built facility on the south side of Canberra. That is our commitment to them.

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

National disability insurance scheme—personal services

MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (11.25): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides people with a permanent and significant disability, aged under 65, with the reasonable and necessary supports they need to live an ordinary life;

(b) the ACT was the first state or territory to sign up to the NDIS in 2013 and the first to transition all eligible participants into the Scheme in 2016-17; and

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