victoria 2006 state election special

• Greatly improve the specialization of teachers in early childhood development, particularly in dealing with specific learning disabilities and global intellectual or developmental disorders, through funded, accredited professional development courses.
• Establish an effective network of community resources including adaptive equipment and material, advisory services and therapy referral options for children with disabilities.
• Train and employ far more assistant teachers to work with children with disability.
• Provide incentives for allied health professionals to move to rural areas to provide early intervention services to rural children, and fund outreach services from regional nodes.
• Extend Reading Recovery Programs to all levels of primary school.

• Labor will provide student welfare and school support services with targeted funding arrangements to provide the highest possible level of support for students with disabilities and impairments.
• Labor is committed to a strong national health care system that provides universal coverage to all Victorians through Medicare and ensures equity of access to publicly-funded services and effective use of public resources.
• Labor will enable consumers to be active partners in their health care, and communities to participate in health service leadership and planning.
• Labor will give priority to the efficient delivery and coordination of rural and regional health services.
• Labor will expand the role of Maternal and Child Health Services in early detection of disease and disability and linking families to appropriate local specialised services.
• Labor is committed to providing early intervention programs to maximize assistance to families.
• Labor will support parents and carers with specific measures to assist them in balancing their work and family responsibilities, and will assist carers who are not able to participate in the paid workforce because of their caring responsibilities.
• Labor is committed to assisting children with a disability to maximise their potential to develop as an individual and participate fully in society.
• Labor is committed to providing choice and a range of accommodation and support options to meet the varying needs of people with a disability.
• Labor will expand the availability of services for families and carers, and ensure services meet the diverse capabilities and needs of people with disabilities.
• Labor is committed to developing, supporting and promoting employment opportunities for people with a disability.
• Labor will improve disabled access to public transport

• The CDP believes that life begins at conception, ( Psalm 139 : 13) therefore abortion at any time during a baby’s development is murder. The CDP completely opposes any move to decriminalise abortion.
• Embryonic stem cell research involves the destruction of human life and must be banned.
• The CDP believes that God, who created all life does not give us the right to prematurely end any human life. Also, palliative care is so advanced it enables compassionate care to be given until natural death.

• We have a clear plan for health policy that requires a massive funding increase. Point 10 of our Fighting Platform calls for "A dramatic expansion of resources to all public health facilities, so that all who need health care, will receive it promptly." This can be achieved because the CEC's policy for a People's Bank, funding infrastructure, would create the necessary national wealth so no one could say we can't afford to spend more on healthcare.
• Medicare should be fully funded so we have free healthcare for all citizens. It should be expanded to include free dental care.
• The government must take responsibility for mental health and where necessary this means patients should receive institutional care—not forced out on the streets to fend for themselves as is becoming sadly too common. This budget cutting exercise is not only completely unnecessary; it is a crime against humanity.

• any Government initiative, State or Federal, that will have a positive impact on access to healthcare for regional Victorians;
• the establishment of basic standards for access to medical and dental care within rural Victoria and identification of those communities who do not meet those standards;
• mirroring federal initiatives by offering 20 scholarships per annum, per upper house region for attracting doctors to regional areas.

• A universal contributory health insurance scheme based on fair and affordable tax-subsidised premiums and full reimbursement or assignment of standard fees for all necessary hospital admissions, diagnostic services and treatments provided by registered health care professionals.
• Substantially increased funding for hospices and for the provision of palliative care for the terminally ill.
• Increased funding to outer metropolitan and regional hospitals to prevent closures due to rationalisation and ensure round the clock access to emergency services.
• Provision for the intellectually disabled in family or foster-family units rather than in larger institutions, with the particular needs of the disabled and their families (as in the provision of respite care when family members with social, emotional and behavioural problems are cared for at home) warranting exceptions to the general rule.
• An emphasis in the care of the intellectually disabled on providing opportunities for their educational development to the maximum of their capacities.
• Community facilities for the profoundly intellectually impaired to include a preschool, a day school, a sheltered workshop, home help and baby care facilities, permanent, semi-permanent and emergency residential beds, home visiting and parent training services and professional referrals.
• Special allocation of public housing for the disabled and disadvantaged.

• FAMILY FIRST believes high quality early childhood education is critical for children's development. The benefits outweigh the costs of universal access in a child’s third and fourth years. Early screening for developmental delays or other problems can happen at kindergarten and allow for appropriate interventions.

• The Government relies more and more on unpaid carers. Carers end up carrying extra burdens due to shorter hospital stays, more day surgery and less access to residential accommodation for people with disabilities. FAMILY FIRST recognises that many carers are worried about the future of their spouse, or disabled child or grandchild.

A Liberal Government will improve recognition and representation for Carers. We will:

• Establish a Division of Carers, Ageing and Disability.
• Establish an Ombudsman for Carers and Aged Care.
• Address the need to maximise workforce participation and the increasing need for families to combine paid work and caring for children and adults with disabilities and older people who are in need of support and assistance.
• Work to promote Carer and family friendly workplace practices and will address the need to maximise workplace participation.
• Build on existing palliative services and standards across Victoria
• Introduce funding for community palliative consultative programs and establish a State-wide model for consultative work.
• Give patients continuum of care by ensuring that care pathways facilitate patient movement across care agencies.
• Establish a Respite for Older Persons Program. The Liberal Party recognises the strain placed on family and friends of those caring for the frail and elderly and will establish a program to support unpaid primary care givers of older persons.
• Provide additional funding for flexible planned regular or holiday and emergency respite both in and out of the person’s home in metropolitan and regional centres
• Offer a range of individualised short-term respite support for primary caregivers specific to each person or the Carers/families needs.
• Make sure all health professionals receive the education and career support required
• Implement a policy of early educational intervention in care situations to promote Carer and family capacity building
• Recognise the benefits provided and the demands placed on informal and supporting Carers.
• Develop local neighbourhood support groups and build a network of mutual support for Carer families ,older people and disabled Victorians
• Amend the Disability Bill in consultation with Carers and peak organisations

• Ensure better co-ordination of health care in country communities, eliminating duplication and overlap between government-funded health providers.
• Establish health service co-ordinating groups made up of representatives of government-funded health and welfare agencies, local government and medical practitioners in rural and regional communities. Co-ordinating groups will be based on a local government area or a group of local government areas.
• Enhance links between country hospitals, Bush Nursing Centres, regional base hospitals and metropolitan hospitals through outreach programs, tele-health and improved patient transport arrangements.
• Provide capital assistance to regional hospitals to improve surgical and other facilities and reduce the need for country patients to travel to Melbourne for treatment.
• Review casemix funding formulas for B and C class country hospitals to ensure they are able to offer country communities health care comparable to that available in metropolitan hospitals.
• Retain and enhance the Small Rural Health Services funding program for smaller country hospitals.
• Restructure and appropriately finance Rural Ambulance Victoria to ensure country Victorians are provided with a properly functioning ambulance service.
• Ensure there are no gaps in the air ambulance service provided to country Victoria and fund a helicopter-based air ambulance service in Western Victoria.
• Maintain support for existing 24-hour ambulance stations and examine opportunities to create additional 24-hour stations where sufficient demand can be demonstrated.
• Institute a range of programs designed to establish country Victoria as a personally and professionally rewarding place to pursue a career in health care.
• Ensure additional funding is available to country hospitals to enable the 160 extra medical trainees in Victoria, recently announced by the Federal Government, to have the opportunity to do their internship (clinical placement) in country hospitals.
• Provide ten scholarships per year to young country Victorians to enable them to study medicine or dentistry at an Australian university on the condition they spend at least five years practising in country Victoria following graduation.
• Establish a country medical professionals support program to ensure training and further educational opportunities are available to rural doctors and other allied health professionals so that a posting to country Victoria is recognised as a good career step as well as a rewarding experience.

• establish a Schools Information Service, independent of the department, to provide comparative data to parents on school cultures, performance and student supports.
• establish fifteen specialist schools around Victoria for children with social and behavioural difficulties as centres which provide intensive personalized support with the aim of returning each child to the mainstream system when they are able to resume mainstream participation
• trial in ten public schools around Victoria a program whereby schools may voluntarily transfer their educational leadership and management to non-government not-for-profit entities (foundations, community organizations, teacher co-operatives, parent entities) to fast-track a change in school culture
• introduce one hundred mobile Learning Intervention Teams to undertake intensive remedial work with students with learning and literacy difficulties, working from school to school as required
• introduce a Support Entitlement for Children with Extra Educational Needs for children with learning, developmental and behavioural deficits and disabilities, allocated directly to parents in the form of a Special Learning Account
• establish a Schools Complaints Resolution Office, independent of the department, to investigate instances of poor performance on the part of the department, schools and staff.

• To restore and extend Medicare
• To make multi-disciplinary community primary health care services the cornerstone of the health system
• To ensure that essential pharmaceuticals are available according to need
• To ensure that mental health services are adequately funded
• To ensure that funding and structuring of health services emphasise prevention and equity
• To ensure that patients’ rights are respected. The Socialist Alliance will guarantee patients' control by legislating the right of access to all information required for informed consent; the right to appoint a legal guardian of a patient's choice; the right to choose or refuse medical treatment; the right to choose contraception appropriate to the patient and abortion as required. Hospitals to be forced to admit their surgical, pharmacological and other nosocomial mistakes as a matter of due process.
• To expand student positions in tertiary health education faculties to overcome the shortage of health workers in nursing, aged care and general practice, particularly in rural areas.

• Expanding specialist programs and resources within the public system, including provision of adequate numbers of teachers and other professionals with specialist skills to undertake early assessment, and implement modified or extension programs to accommodate the needs of every student.
• Expanding links to community resources, such as mental health, for students with particular needs or disabilities.
• Identifying and resourcing specific regional and groups’ needs, such as English as a Second Language, literacy education, Distance Education and remote and isolated schools.

• Achieving greater and more effective consumer participation in health decision making.
• Resourcing those health consumer organisations that assist consumers to participate fully in decisions about health care and health resources.
• Implementing a Charter of Patient Rights, with consumers and patients encouraged to play a stronger role in their own care.
• Including members of the health workforce (doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health and other health professionals) in health service delivery policy development and planning.
• Developing a code of practice for the provision of health information, which is based on ethical standards and requires full disclosure of financial interests by all individuals and organisations providing health information to the public, the media and health service providers.