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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-05 Daily Xml
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Mental Health Services

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Why is the minister cutting $6.8 million from mental health programs at the same time as SA Health is being referred to the Human Rights Commission over their dangerous emergency department wait times for mental health patients?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:38): We are seeing today, time after time, the adolescence of the Labor Party. We have seen it with the leader; now we are seeing it from the shadow minister. It is despicable of the Labor opposition to spread fear and misinformation amongst one of our most vulnerable client groups: the mental health consumers. The fact of the matter is that there is no reduction in funding to mental health services. Clients will not lose a dollar as a result of the NDIS transition.

Contrary to Labor's claims, this has nothing to do with the state budget. It has everything to do with the NDIS transition plan, which is embedded in the NDIS agreement, which they signed when they were in government. We are committed to delivering this important reform for South Australians with a mental health issue because we believe that they should have the right to direct their own care. Unlike the former government, which is so hypocritical that they spread fear and misinformation about a reform, which they themselves signed off, we are committed to delivering this important reform for South Australians with mental health issues.

Let's look at the lies that we heard from the Labor opposition today—absolute lies. We have a press release which was released earlier today and the first paragraph has the statement that the Marshall Liberal government cruelly cut 25 per cent of their funding. Rubbish, rubbish. We have not cut a single dollar from mental health services. This is about money that is transferring from the state mental health funded services to NDIS, as was always envisaged under NDIS.

Then we get down to paragraph 3 which states that among the groups which will cop a 25 per cent cut—this group, this group, this group and this group—a number of those do not even provide services to people who would be eligible for NDIS services. It's very unlikely that they would lose anywhere near 25 per cent.

The former government, now the opposition, is so bereft of values that they are willing to spread misinformation and fear amongst one of our most vulnerable groups. It is a complete fabrication to call this a funding cut. It's not. It's a delivery of important reform for people with disabilities, including people with psychosocial disability.

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