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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-05 Daily Xml
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Crisis Accommodation

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:30): Supplementary: is the minister saying that the city crisis accommodation beds will not close?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:30): What I am saying is that there are negotiations going forward, and the winning alliance has stated—I think they have stated publicly as well—that the number of beds going forward will be maintained, but the exact location of that is yet to be determined, particularly when there are negotiations taking place. I am not going to insert myself into that process by making them—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: No, you're just the minister; you're just the one who makes the decisions—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: —you're not going to insert yourself in the process at all!

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: By way of one of the Labor member's interjections, I probably should explain a little bit—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: This is an outrage. Beds closing in the middle of winter. Who has thought this up?

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter is out of order.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —about how the model will operate. Under the old model, we had the existing services.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: They were all prescribed about what service type—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —cohort, and so we have had this system that hasn't had a good look at for 10 years, which can't move funding around to where it's needed most. If you are prescribed to provide a particular service type to a particular cohort you can't shift that funding, yet when there are things that are going on in the community, such as if there is a surge in domestic and family violence, then we can't shift that funding around.

Instead of taking the individual command control approach with the non-government sector, we have said to them we want to give them the power to determine these things. The money was pooled together. The alliance tenders were released and assessed, and we are looking for a collective approach, something I thought the Labor Party thought they were all over. It's a collective approach—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will be heard in silence.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: It is a collective approach, where the organisations have their own governance structure to determine changes to needs as they arise in the community.

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