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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-22 Daily Xml
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MENTAL HEALTH BEDS

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse a question relating to the proposed forensic mental health facility.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On Tuesday, the minister stated in this place:

The new forensic mental health facility will be able to be expanded easily; it will be designed in a way that will allow it to expand to meet our needs.

In fact, the opposition has been advised that, as the site of the forensic mental health facility is on the extreme eastern boundary of the Mobilong campus and is isolated from the rest of the site by a gas pipeline on the western boundary, the facility has limited scope for expansion. The government has amended the PPP documentation to allow for the capacity of the new men's and women's prisons to be increased by 50 per cent on what was originally planned. My questions are:

1. Given that the minister has informed the council that the facility will be able to be expanded, why does the amended PPP documentation not specify that need for the capacity to expand, as it does with the other elements of the site?

2. Can the minister assure the council that the forensic mental health facility will have the capacity to expand by at least 50 per cent, as is proposed for the prison accommodation, so that there is no further diminution of the ratio of prisoners to forensic mental health beds?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Environment and Conservation, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health) (14:34): I thank the honourable member for his questions. It is truly sad that members opposite cannot come up with original questions, that they have to keep rehashing the same old questions day in and day out. It is a farce that they cannot come up with an original question.

As I stated yesterday, there are currently 30 forensic mental health beds at James Nash House, and it is proposed that we build 40 at the new development at Mobilong. The 10 beds at Glenside will be relocated there as well. As I also mentioned yesterday, the new Glenside site—the new, reformed, rebuilt site at Glenside—will also have 40 new beds installed for people who need secure care. They are additional beds for people requiring acute mental health care.

So it can be seen that this is just one plank of our overall reform agenda for our mental health system (for which Stepping Up is a blueprint), and it is a commitment at least up to this date. We have put our money where our mouth is with a commitment of $107.9 million, and you would think the opposition would congratulate us on this proposal to upgrade our forensic mental health facilities, which are currently out of date and outmoded. They are based around a prison model of care. It is outdated and outmoded. We have a plan to rebuild a state-of-the-art new facility at the Mobilong site. One would think that members opposite would be congratulating us but, no; they sat on their hands for eight years and allowed our mental health system to simply degrade and deteriorate and, really, they have nothing better to do.

The design details for that site have not been completed. They are still being developed. The advice that I have to date is that the forensic mental health facility will have a capacity for future expansion. The design details have not been completed. There is a long way to go as yet and, as more information becomes available, it can be assessed. That is the matter I have to hand. The details are not even signed off on yet but the advice is that there will be room for expansion when and if needed. We should be congratulated for doing such a wonderful job with our new facilities.

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