Mary Henry (Independent)

The Minister for Health and Children is quoted in today's newspapers, on opening the new Bloomfield nursing home, as saying she had an agreement with the Minister for Finance that tax relief would now be extended to those who built private mental hospitals, and not just to private hospitals to deal with physical ailments which have already been covered. I welcome this very much. I raised this issue several times in the House and I also wrote to the current and previous Minister for Finance about it. It shows how poorly we treat people with mental illness when the same sort of facilities are not encouraged for those who are mentally ill as for those who are physically ill. I hope Senators join me in asking the Leader to congratulate the Minister on having brought this proposal forward.