Mr HENDERSON - 1999-10-20
This government has failed to deliver an appropriate level of disability support services to Territorians. The disability sector estimates $7m is required to meet unmet needs in the Territory. Territory Health Services themselves estimate unmet needs total $4m. Recently, the federal government handed out $150m to states and territories to address unmet needs. Minister, have you got the $7m the Territory needs from the Commonwealth government’s $150m? If you haven’t got the money from your federal colleagues, will you now stand up in your Cabinet room and deliver these desperately needed funds at a Territory level?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, Territorians should be listening with a sense of fear to the naivety that has come from those opposite.
Mr Ah Kit: Answer the question.
Mr DUNHAM: I’ll answer the question. Just stop interjecting.
The issue we have before us is a national one – how you address the enormous unmet need in this nation. It is an issue on which I find my counterparts interstate have a degree of unanimity on, including Labor health ministers and Labor disability ministers.
The Commonwealth government has conducted a series of meetings across 3 or 4 federal ministers going back to Minister Smith, to Minister Moylan and now Minister Newman. We have mounted a fairly effective campaign for the Commonwealth to put its hand in its pocket and to look at addressing this on a national basis. It needs national leadership and should be addressed on a national basis.
The level of unmet need is actually $300m in this nation. We put forward that the Commonwealth should do something pretty much like it did with gun buyback and other schemes. It should take a leadership role and address the base. Even after we address unmet need, we are still talking about the ongoing growth of need in this area.
My Cabinet colleagues are very well aware of this issue, the Treasurer having been a health minister himself and the Chief Minister having been a health minister himself, and in fact having kicked off the campaign with Minister Smith some years ago.
Yes, now we have the Commonwealth saying. there’s $150m on the table. Two things are patently obvious. One is that it’s half of the $300m. That is the first bell that goes off for the opposition. The second thing is that - the opposition wouldn’t know this, but in the unfortunate event they ever achieved government they could find out by ringing other Labor governments - we adopt a policy of looking every gift horse in the mouth. We make sure that when the Commonwealth says, ‘Here is $150m, sign on the dotted line’, we look at the caveats and fine print in the document.
Strange as it may seem to the opposition, all Australian disability ministers have written on this issue. We have signed one letter, the whole lot of us. We have all written to the federal minister, Jocelyn Newman and said we want to know about the caveats. We want to make sure that the unique needs of our jurisdictions are met. This is called standing up for Territorians. We want to make sure that we can develop practices and programs with this money that best suit our own needs.
One of the core initiatives of the government is to look after people with disabilities with ageing carers. This is an important area. It is very important that those ageing carers for people with disabilities have their own needs addressed. Their frailty with the onset of old age means that they are often in fairly stressful situations.
We will address the Commonwealth’s approach thinkingly. We will make sure that the money suits our needs and the needs of our disability community, and we will make sure that if there is a need to match it with Territory dollars, we look at little things like: ‘Is this money ongoing or is it once-off?’
We think our stewardship demands that we ask these questions, and we are not alone in Australia. That letter has been unanimously signed by all disability ministers. I am sure that Territorians will be pleased that it is this CLP government that is approaching this matter, and not that rabble opposite.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, Territorians should be listening with a sense of fear to the naivety that has come from those opposite.
Mr Ah Kit: Answer the question.
Mr DUNHAM: I’ll answer the question. Just stop interjecting.
The issue we have before us is a national one – how you address the enormous unmet need in this nation. It is an issue on which I find my counterparts interstate have a degree of unanimity on, including Labor health ministers and Labor disability ministers.
The Commonwealth government has conducted a series of meetings across 3 or 4 federal ministers going back to Minister Smith, to Minister Moylan and now Minister Newman. We have mounted a fairly effective campaign for the Commonwealth to put its hand in its pocket and to look at addressing this on a national basis. It needs national leadership and should be addressed on a national basis.
The level of unmet need is actually $300m in this nation. We put forward that the Commonwealth should do something pretty much like it did with gun buyback and other schemes. It should take a leadership role and address the base. Even after we address unmet need, we are still talking about the ongoing growth of need in this area.
My Cabinet colleagues are very well aware of this issue, the Treasurer having been a health minister himself and the Chief Minister having been a health minister himself, and in fact having kicked off the campaign with Minister Smith some years ago.
Yes, now we have the Commonwealth saying. there’s $150m on the table. Two things are patently obvious. One is that it’s half of the $300m. That is the first bell that goes off for the opposition. The second thing is that - the opposition wouldn’t know this, but in the unfortunate event they ever achieved government they could find out by ringing other Labor governments - we adopt a policy of looking every gift horse in the mouth. We make sure that when the Commonwealth says, ‘Here is $150m, sign on the dotted line’, we look at the caveats and fine print in the document.
Strange as it may seem to the opposition, all Australian disability ministers have written on this issue. We have signed one letter, the whole lot of us. We have all written to the federal minister, Jocelyn Newman and said we want to know about the caveats. We want to make sure that the unique needs of our jurisdictions are met. This is called standing up for Territorians. We want to make sure that we can develop practices and programs with this money that best suit our own needs.
One of the core initiatives of the government is to look after people with disabilities with ageing carers. This is an important area. It is very important that those ageing carers for people with disabilities have their own needs addressed. Their frailty with the onset of old age means that they are often in fairly stressful situations.
We will address the Commonwealth’s approach thinkingly. We will make sure that the money suits our needs and the needs of our disability community, and we will make sure that if there is a need to match it with Territory dollars, we look at little things like: ‘Is this money ongoing or is it once-off?’
We think our stewardship demands that we ask these questions, and we are not alone in Australia. That letter has been unanimously signed by all disability ministers. I am sure that Territorians will be pleased that it is this CLP government that is approaching this matter, and not that rabble opposite.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016