Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

All I can say is that I think there is a genuine engagement on these issues between the state and Commonwealth governments. I am sure also that the new Western Australian Liberal government will engage seriously with them, because there has been a level of bipartisan support in WA on making progress in these areas. So what I will guarantee is that I think this process is a welcome process and that I hope we will make headway in better delineating responsibilities and better resourcing assistance, in order to finally tackle what is one of the blights on Australia’s social progress in the last 20 years. This area of disability and mental health, I think, does no credit to public policymakers of either side of politics, and I hope we will get positive results out of the COAG process in order to provide much better services and much better support than has been provided in the past.