Boost for Aged and Community Care

Health Minister Katy Gallagher has announced a funding boost for aged and community care services in the Territory.

The additional $1.9m will be directed at providing improved care to people in their homes including personal and respite care, domestic assistance, social support and home maintenance.

It also means the opening hours of the Aged Care and Rehabilitation Service at Kirra in Belconnen, and the Tuggeranong Day Care Centre will be extended from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm Monday to Friday rather than only from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm.

This will improve access for aged people and assist people with staying in their homes rather than prematurely entering a residential aged care facility.

All up, the Federal and ACT governments spend nearly $25m funding aged and community care programs each year.

Territory Rights

Further to my comments a couple of weeks ago about the quashing of laws in the ACT and Northern Territory by the Federal Government, I notice Civil Liberties Australia has written to the PM requesting the Government “rectify the unequal and inequitable treatment of its Territorian citizens before Australia Day 2009″.

Dr Kristine Klugman, President of CLA argues that equal rights for Territorians are not contained in a number of Constitutional clauses and as such do not exist. For example:

• Lesser rights to water, relative to the rights of residents of Australian States, of residents of the ACT and NT, as spelled out in Clause 100 of the Australian Constitution:

(Extract from the Australian Constitution):
Nor abridge right to use water.
100. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or
commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the
reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation.

• The absence of a right to equality of treatment in relation to disabling and/or discriminatory legislation by the Commonwealth – or by States – to residents of the ACT and the NT:

Rights of residents in States.
117. A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not be subject in
any other State to any disability or discrimination which would not be
equally applicable to him if he were a subject of the Queen resident in
such other State.

• The absence of giving – in relation to the citizens of the NT and ACT – full faith and credit to the laws, public Acts/records and judicial proceedings of the legislature and judiciaries of the ACT and the NT, by comparison with the laws, public Acts/records and judicial proceedings of the Australian States:

Recognition of laws, &c. of States.
118. Full faith and credit shall be given, throughout the Commonwealth to
the laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of
every State.

• The inequity of citizens of the ACT/NT being ‘double ruled’ – by comparison with residents of Australian States – by being subject to the laws of the ACT/NT and, in addition, to any special laws or executive decisions imposed solely on the ACT and/or NT, and not on the States, by the Australian Government:

Government of territories.
122. The Parliament may make laws for the government of any territory
surrendered by any State to and accepted by the Commonwealth, or of any
territory placed by the Queen under the authority of and accepted by the
Commonwealth, or otherwise acquired by the Commonwealth, and may
allow the representation of such territory in either House of the Parliament
to the extent and on the terms which it thinks fit.

We clearly have an agenda for reform here. The constitutional rights of the people in the Territories need to addressed, not to mention the inequity in parliamentary representation. But that’s a matter for another post.

Euthanasia Debate Reignites

I see in the CT this morning the debate on euthanasia has reignited with Senator Bob Brown writing to the PM and Opposition Leader asking for a conscience vote on a bill for the Rights of the Terminally Ill.

No doubt this will fire up a vigorous debate in the community which I strongly encourage.

My position on voluntary euthanasia is simple: it’s about dignity.

I believe, under strict conditions, terminally ill people have the right to choose the time of their passing, to choose to leave their life at peace and with dignity.

My views are driven not just by ideology but by personal experience – both my mum and dad passed away in circumstances where they both suffered and lost their dignity at the end of their lives.

As Civil Liberties Australia puts it:

“CLA supports a person’s rights over his or her mind and body, from birth through death. Competent individuals should have free choice in advance whether they wish to receive treatment, or continuing treatment when no longer competent. A person is free to end his or her own life. These rights should be contained in legislation.”

Notwithstanding my position on the issue of euthanasia, it is entirely at odds with our democratic system of Government that two jurisdictions with self-government and self-determination can be overruled by the Federal Government, simply because of their status as Territories. The Northern Territory’s “Rights of the Terminally Ill” Act was overturned by the Howard Government in 1997. Similarly, the ACT civil unions legislation was quashed twice by the Coalition because it disagreed with its intent and outcomes.

The people who live in the ACT and NT are no different to those that live in any other state where if such a law was passed, it would remain free from intervention from another Government in this country.

It’s time to review the powers of the Commonwealth to intervene in the matters of the Territories and to once and for all, ensure that the people of the ACT and the Northern Territory have the same rights as all else in this country and that the practice of discrimination on the basis of geographic location is forever more a thing of the past.