TAKING THEIR TIME

Sometimes you listen to the self-serving, self-justifying, waffle that comes out of the mouths of government ministers and you could be excused for thinking that the Labor government has been in power in Victoria for ten minutes. Or ten weeks. They conveniently, perhaps deliberately, ignore the fact that they have been in office for ten years. Ten years next month.

And yet on a myriad of issues from child abuse and the collapse of DHS, to hospitals, to public transport, to Police, the government mantra is: we’re instituting news measures, we’ve commissioned a report, we’re looking into it.

And it is not good enough. We had enough of that under Liberal Premier Dick Hamer who justifiably earned himself the nickname ‘the mirror’ because he was always saying ‘I’ll look into it’.

The latest is the scandal involving vulnerable women in state monitored (supposedly monitored) care homes.  These are women who are mentally ill, disabled, or elderly. Or all three.  The Public Advocate, Colleen Pearce, says Victorians would feel ‘ashamed’  if they visited some Government-monitored private nursing homes.

And what does the Community Services Minister say about it? Lisa Neville says the Government has begun improving the care-homer sector. ‘Has begun’. Like when? Last Thursday?

She also says there are some facilities that operate very well but there are some that are below standard and the government initiatives ‘will address some of those issues’.

‘Will address’. Not ‘has addressed’. Not ‘is addressing’ but ‘will address’. You’ve only had ten years top get it right Minister.

Colleen Pearce also says: ‘When you have got women who need to get basic necessities, they will often provide sexual favours to get them and then feel really abused by that.  It is not uncommon for us to hear about women either trading cigarettes for sex or being raped.’

The situation is exacerbated when you have vulnerable women having to share a bedroom with no privacy and scant supervision.

For a Public Advocate to go public and accuse a government of ‘Band-Aid solutions means she must feel desperate. And ten years on this government should feel ashamed of themselves despite all their self-aggrandising backslapping.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009