❓ A parliamentary question regarding the lifting of the smoking ban for involuntary mental health patients, focusing on the timeline, consultation process, and management of mixed patient wards. The Minister's response outlines progress, consultation efforts, and bipartisan support.
AnsweredQoN 1023Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
MENTAL HEALTH — INVOLUNTARY PATIENTS — SMOKING BAN
I refer to the lifting of the smoking ban for involuntary patients in locked wards. (1) How long will it take to have the ban lifted for involuntary patients? (2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON
I refer to the lifting of the smoking ban for involuntary patients in locked wards. (1) How long will it take to have the ban lifted for involuntary patients? (2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(1) How long will it take to have the ban lifted for involuntary patients? (2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(1) How long will it take to have the ban lifted for involuntary patients? (2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(2) What kind of consultation will exist with front-line staff about how the lifting of the ban will be implemented? (3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(3) It is common to have wards that have both voluntary and involuntary patients at the same time; how will these situations be handled? (4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(4) Would the department consider, at each local level, having a full consultation process with staff members to explore whether they can consider having a mental health nurse who, on a voluntary basis, would be available for those who need to be escorted on a cigarette break? Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
Hon HELEN MORTON replied: I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question. (1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
(1)–(4) As I have previously indicated, an intense amount of work is taking place on this at the moment. The working group met yesterday or the day before. The group I referred to includes the Mental Health Commissioner, Eddie Bartnik; the head of the Council of Official Visitors, Deborah Colvin; the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Mike Daube; and representatives of the Director General of the Department of Health. The group has made substantial progress and is almost at the stage of being able to put the final plan into a cabinet submission, and people are determined that it will work. As Hon Liz Behjat said the other day, this is a work in progress. There have been significant levels of consultation with staff; it is not something that has just been dreamt up over the last week or two. Consultation has taken place at different levels and with different agencies across the state in both country and metropolitan areas. Almost everywhere I go, it is a topic of conversation with families and friends of people with a mental illness. There has been a significant amount of discussion around this with organisations that represent various groups of people, whether they are consumer groups, friends and family, carer groups or service organisations that are involved with providing involuntary care to people with a mental illness. A substantial amount of consultation has taken place. I read in the press release that Hon Liz Behjat brought to our attention that Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich had hoped to claim credit for this work. I am sorry to disappoint her, but this work is nearly wrapped up, and she has come in right at the back end of it. Good on her for doing that; that is terrific, because it gave me an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that we have not only bipartisan but tripartisan support. That is a great outcome. It is pretty much final now, and I could almost not have imagined that I could have managed to make this happen so quickly. I am so thrilled that we have been able to do that. I do not know precisely when this will be wrapped up, but it is very close.
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