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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-06-13 Daily Xml
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DISABILITY ACCESS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The Hon. S.G. WADE (15:22): Yes, I do. I ask the minister: if the monitoring of implementation of whole of government standards and policies for disability is not the responsibility of you as Minister for Disabilities, whose responsibility is it?

The PRESIDENT: You explained that.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:23): How many times do you have to tell these people that every separate agency, every minister, has a responsibility—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I should start from the very beginning and take them back to square one, shouldn't I?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: There are too many people, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Let me take them through it again. My responsibilities as Minister for Disabilities are for the services that are provided by my agency and for the functions of the act. I take the view that other ministers and other departmental agencies should be applying their remit to the whole of the population, including people with disabilities, all people with mental health issues and it goes on. So, when people come into this place and expect me to take up an issue that is properly in the purview of another agency, I am always very happy to take that position to those agencies, although honourable members here can do it very well themselves, I would have thought.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: They're too lazy!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: But they are too lazy. Perhaps they don't really want to take the issue up—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —they just want to sit on it and save it for a question in this house. Here we are on the Wednesday after the budget, and what have we seen from this opposition in terms of looking at what the government has laid out in our budget last week? Nothing. Yesterday was absolutely soporific. Yesterday, this chamber did not ask a single question about the budget process.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: Nor today.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Nor today. Maybe they are saving them up, and they are very good questions for estimates, or maybe they are—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Of course, it is too hard. I think the honourable minister, the Leader of the Government, has something like five hours of questions lined up in her estimates and I think I have about—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Five and a half hours, where she will be asked, in excruciating detail, by members of the opposition in the other place—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Once again, can I say that the responsibilities that I take very seriously, particularly regarding access and inclusion plans across all of government, will be driven by my agency. I take the view, and I repeat again, that every agency in this government, every minister in this government, will be serving their client base, whoever they are, as well as they can. It is not the purview of my agency to be running disability issues through the department of transport, the department of mental health or the department of ageing, they are for the appropriate agencies.

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