Disability-Specific Toilet Facilities

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Treasurer a question about funding for disability-specific toilet facilities.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: As we approach World Toilet Day on 19 November, the need to improve toilet facilities, particularly for South Australians with disabilities, and the need to establish changing places is a very current topic. Changing places are very specifically designed accessible toilet facilities because they are fitted with equipment, such as a height-adjustable adult-size changing table, a hoist system and a space for a person with a disability and one or two assistants if needed, as well as a nonslip floor, of course, and a safe and clean environment.

In September, the Victorian government announced that it will be establishing another 15 new changing places on top of those the state already has, and has been consulting with the community about where these facilities should be located. More than $1.5 million is being invested in the construction of these new changing place facilities. My questions to the Treasurer are:

1. What plans does the South Australian government currently have to support the inclusion of changing places in South Australia?

2. Is there a five-year plan in place to roll out changing places in metropolitan and key regional centres in South Australia?

3. Does the minister or the Treasurer agree that, with an increase in our ageing population, changing place facilities can be considered as essential civic infrastructure nowadays?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:32): I thank the honourable member for her most important question to the Treasurer in the other place. Changing places are a very topical issue at the moment and, additionally with the expenditure the government has outlined in terms of putting in place new changing room facilities at sporting facilities, it would be an ideal opportunity to take up the honourable member's suggestions about rolling out changing places at the same time. I think it's a brilliant idea. I undertake to take that question to the Treasurer in the other place and seek a response on her behalf.