Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the honourable member who sits opposite that, when negotiating the next five-year agreement with the states and territories about the Commonwealth-state disability agreement, I put it to the state and territory ministers that the Commonwealth would again enter into a five-year agreement with the same funding plus $400 million indexation. Then, to meet the unmet need for supported accommodation and respite care, we asked each state and territory to come back to the Commonwealth with an individual plan to address the needs of people with disabilities. I said, ‘Come back to us with a plan that will deliver places for supported accommodation and respite care and the Commonwealth will consider each of those plans on a dollar-for-dollar basis.’ I put that directly to those ministers. What they did at that meeting was to adjourn the meeting, caucus outside for 10 minutes, come back inside, read a written statement and close the meeting without further comment. It was a reprehensible piece of behaviour by people who are supposed to be representing those people most vulnerable in our community. Every single one of those people was a Labor minister. The offer we put was then put again in writing, asking the state and territory governments to bring a plan forward to the Commonwealth so that we could fund the need for supported accommodation.

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