❓ Mr. Abetz asks about the continuation of Community Physiotherapy Services adult rehabilitation classes. The Minister for Health confirms the program will continue with both Commonwealth and State funding, highlighting its importance and expansion.
AnsweredQoN 426Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
COMMUNITY
PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES — ADULT REHABILITATION CLASSES
426. Mr P. ABETZ to the
Minister for Health:
I understand that the Liberal–National government has
been provided additional funding to allow Community Physiotherapy Services to
continue the provision of rehabilitation classes for adults. Can the minister
please confirm that this important initiative will continue?
PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES — ADULT REHABILITATION CLASSES
426. Mr P. ABETZ to the
Minister for Health:
I understand that the Liberal–National government has
been provided additional funding to allow Community Physiotherapy Services to
continue the provision of rehabilitation classes for adults. Can the minister
please confirm that this important initiative will continue?
AnswerView source ↗
That is an excellent question. There has been some confusion
in the community about what is happening to Community Physiotherapy Services.
It is something with which I became involved back in 2005, in opposition, when
the then Minister for Health proposed to cut Community Physiotherapy Services
and stop it. There was a huge community outcry about that, including by me on
behalf of my constituents, and the end result was that the minister did a
backflip and reinstated the program. It sounds a bit familiar, does it not,
Treasurer? He reinstated the program because of community concern. What he did
at the time was to change the nature of the program and the sorts of services
that would be provided to new clients so that it would be much more focused on
people with, for example, acquired brain injury, Parkinson's disease
and the like, but grandfathered the change so that all those who had been
receiving balance training through physiotherapy—which is a very good
program that helps people keep their balance, reducing the risk of falls and
hence the risk of hip fractures—would continue to receive that service
for the rest of their lives.
This government continued that, but four years ago the
commonwealth government came along with a commitment to a significant increase
in funding through the national partnership agreement, particularly focusing on
that end of the spectrum—those coming out of hospital who had severe
problems and who needed assistance in finding their balance and working within
the community. At the end of that four-year agreement with the commonwealth
government—I think it was a Council of Australian Governments agreement—it
withdrew its funding. I wrote to the federal Minister for Health and Medical
Research, Tanya Plibersek, pleading with her to continue that funding and
saying how important this particular service was, but I was unfortunately not
successful. However, we have received cooperation in the last two weeks from
that federal government department, which has allowed us to re-use some other
national partnership funding to put back into that service so that we can keep it
going. Almost $1 million has come back from the commonwealth government into
the system so that we can keep that service going. More than that, after having
discussions with that department, it actually went beyond the amount of money
it had because there was so much demand, so today I have committed to put in
further state government funding to make sure that we can meet that demand. We
are doing that out of the growth funding that has been kindly provided by the
Treasurer—the seven per cent growth funding in health expenditure,
which will give us the capacity to increase funding for Community Physiotherapy
Services so that it can grow even bigger. It is a fantastic program that
provides an enormous amount of support for those who need passage back into the
community, often after having suffered a stroke, Parkinson's disease or
an acquired brain injury. We are committed to keeping that program going.
in the community about what is happening to Community Physiotherapy Services.
It is something with which I became involved back in 2005, in opposition, when
the then Minister for Health proposed to cut Community Physiotherapy Services
and stop it. There was a huge community outcry about that, including by me on
behalf of my constituents, and the end result was that the minister did a
backflip and reinstated the program. It sounds a bit familiar, does it not,
Treasurer? He reinstated the program because of community concern. What he did
at the time was to change the nature of the program and the sorts of services
that would be provided to new clients so that it would be much more focused on
people with, for example, acquired brain injury, Parkinson's disease
and the like, but grandfathered the change so that all those who had been
receiving balance training through physiotherapy—which is a very good
program that helps people keep their balance, reducing the risk of falls and
hence the risk of hip fractures—would continue to receive that service
for the rest of their lives.
This government continued that, but four years ago the
commonwealth government came along with a commitment to a significant increase
in funding through the national partnership agreement, particularly focusing on
that end of the spectrum—those coming out of hospital who had severe
problems and who needed assistance in finding their balance and working within
the community. At the end of that four-year agreement with the commonwealth
government—I think it was a Council of Australian Governments agreement—it
withdrew its funding. I wrote to the federal Minister for Health and Medical
Research, Tanya Plibersek, pleading with her to continue that funding and
saying how important this particular service was, but I was unfortunately not
successful. However, we have received cooperation in the last two weeks from
that federal government department, which has allowed us to re-use some other
national partnership funding to put back into that service so that we can keep it
going. Almost $1 million has come back from the commonwealth government into
the system so that we can keep that service going. More than that, after having
discussions with that department, it actually went beyond the amount of money
it had because there was so much demand, so today I have committed to put in
further state government funding to make sure that we can meet that demand. We
are doing that out of the growth funding that has been kindly provided by the
Treasurer—the seven per cent growth funding in health expenditure,
which will give us the capacity to increase funding for Community Physiotherapy
Services so that it can grow even bigger. It is a fantastic program that
provides an enormous amount of support for those who need passage back into the
community, often after having suffered a stroke, Parkinson's disease or
an acquired brain injury. We are committed to keeping that program going.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.