Page 2914 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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Back to rebuking! I draw Ms Lawder’s attention to a recent article by Professor Matthew Yau, who is an adjunct professor at the College of Healthcare Sciences at James Cook University and who, in his article in The Conversation, expressed it perfectly well:
“Sexual expression and intimacy” are basic human needs, and “should be equally recognised among people with and without disability as facilitating improved quality of life”.
I do not think anybody in this place can disagree with that statement. And I am very pleased to have been able to draw people’s attention to it today and put it on the record.
Finally, it is worth reflecting on Ms Lawder’s comments as well that Ms Cody somehow failed or was remiss in having chaired the health committee, the HACS committee, at a time when it was delivering its report on the NDIS. However, if Ms Lawder had bothered to use any of the parliamentary records available to any member or their staff, she would know that Ms Cody joined that committee, I believe, only in October 2018. This was an inquiry that that committee had started very early in 2018 and, based on the minutes that I have seen, they had concluded their hearings and the taking of evidence by about mid-year, well in advance of Ms Cody joining the committee. While Ms Cody was, yes, technically the chair at the time of the deliberations on the report and of the tabling of the report, she was using, as were other members of that committee, evidence that had been presented at a time well before her being part of it.
Ms Lawder’s comments were rather strange when suggesting that members cannot raise issues if they have ever done an inquiry on a related matter which, frankly, I thought was a silly claim for a deputy leader to put on the record, and quite frankly the whole speech was a misdirection on the issues that Ms Cody raised.
Rebuking finished and amendment to the motion having been distributed, I thank Ms Cody for bringing to this place this important issue, this highly relevant issue and this highly well-supported issue in the community and in this place. I commend the motion and its subsequent amendments to the Assembly. I seek leave to move my amendment.
Leave granted.
MS CHEYNE: I move:
Omit paragraph (3)(b), substitute:
“(b) make a tripartisan statement in support of sex therapy and sex work under the NDIS and, specifically, in opposition to any change to the NDIS (Support for Participants) Rules 2013 that would preclude such services, by forwarding this motion to the Prime Minister and Minister for the NDIS, signed by the leaders of all ACT Legislative Assembly parties.”.
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