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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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HEALTH BUDGET

Debate resumed.

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (12:29): I thank the members who have contributed to the debate, and I will respond as follows. As I listened to what the member for Taylor has outlined in her contribution it reminded me of reading press releases from the government minister. I say this to all members of the house: when you receive letters from your constituents, whether they be a parent or a spouse of someone who is suffering from mental health issues, and you are not able to help them find adequate services, and when you read the statistics published annually which tell us that double the number of people die from suicide in this country than on the roads, and when you look at the reports from ministers who tell us all the wonderful things they are going to do, remember this day and this debate.

This is an opportunity for members to say to the government—the federal government in this instance—that it is not good enough to do something that is not only bad for people suffering from mental illness but also undermines the very projects that the government intends to introduce in this state, which the member for Taylor outlined, that is, the capacity to keep people out of acute services.

The reality is that the member for Taylor listed all the things that her government is going to be doing for intermediate care and the like in the mental health area in South Australia and the dates on which they may be completed in the future. Let me tell you the stark truth about the situation. While all those things are promised to be delivered at some future date, this is what is happening right now: Brentwood House at Glenside Hospital has been demolished, trees have been felled, land has been dug up, buildings have been pulled down adjacent to that area to facilitate a new supermarket, an oval has been dug up, so children cannot access it, and we are still years away from providing even the 129-bed hospital that the member for Taylor has told us is on its way.

We are still waiting for all these other things, but patients have only had access to the Glenside campus, part of which has now been bulldozed. The only real work that has been happening on that site for the benefit of anyone is, in fact, the Film Corporation's new plush accommodation in the heritage buildings at the Glenside Hospital site. A patient cannot even go to church in the chapel anymore because that has been quarantined for redevelopment for the Film Corporation. This is the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter is that all the government has done so far is produce some reports, bulldoze the facilities we already have—precious as they are—and promise what we are going to get. Well, that is not good enough.

Members of the house who read those heart-wrenching letters from constituents about their day-to-day struggle with members of their family who have mental health issues, or those who have lost a loved one whom they tried to support, need to be reminded of the truth in this situation. When the government says that it wants to be able to do something that is open and transparent and to the benefit of South Australians, it should also remember this: they are the ones who stopped us from even seeing the documents and correspondence between the developers of that site and the government. They have been ordered by the Ombudsman to provide that and, in fact, there has been a direction for that to happen.

The government has gone to the District Court to ask for another blanket of security to be put around it so that it does not have to tell us the truth about what is going on. We have been waiting 11 months for that judgment and, in the meantime, it has signed the very contract to perpetuate the commercial benefit to this government with scant regard—in fact, not a scintilla of regard—for people with mental health issues in this state who deserve support. So, shame on those who oppose this motion. Shame on those who are not prepared to stand up for people with mental health issues in this state.

The house divided on the motion:

AYES (18)
Brock, G.G. Chapman, V.A. (teller) Evans, I.F.
Gardner, J.A.W. Goldsworthy, M.R. Griffiths, S.P.
Hamilton-Smith, M.L.J. Marshall, S.S. Pederick, A.S.
Pengilly, M. Pisoni, D.G. Sanderson, R.
Such, R.B. Treloar, P.A. van Holst Pellekaan, D.C.
Venning, I.H. Whetstone, T.J. Williams, M.R.
NOES (23)
Bedford, F.E. Bignell, L.W. Caica, P.
Conlon, P.F. Fox, C.C. Geraghty, R.K.
Hill, J.D. Kenyon, T.R. Key, S.W.
Koutsantonis, A. (teller) O'Brien, M.F. Odenwalder, L.K.
Piccolo, T. Portolesi, G. Rankine, J.M.
Rann, M.D. Rau, J.R. Sibbons, A.L.
Snelling, J.J. Thompson, M.G. Vlahos, L.A.
Weatherill, J.W. Wright, M.J.

Majority of 5 for the noes.

Motion thus negatived.

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