Page 813 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 6 April 2022
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I challenge anyone to find anything at all in his ministerial statement resembling concern for teachers, students or parents at Calwell High School, or the nurses at the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit. I challenge anyone to find something of significance to what is actually happening in Canberra this week. Minister, this is almost a work of fiction. It was mentioned a bit earlier: are you in touch with reality? This statement proves that you are not.
Mr Gentleman: Point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker. The standing orders call for members to direct their comments through the chair, not directly to members of the Assembly.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Orr): Yes. Mr Cain, I request that you direct your comments to me, as the chair, not to other members of the Assembly.
MR CAIN: Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker. Madam Assistant Speaker, the minister is not in touch with reality and I challenge anyone to pull out of this report something that resembles a concern or a solution, or even an acknowledgement of what is happening in Calwell High School or the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit.
Out of touch with reality—this is actually representative of this government. I said yesterday afternoon, in an adjournment moment, that this is the worst service delivery government the territory has had. Across the board, in health, in education, in basic infrastructure like roads and footpaths, we are seeing failure after failure. But what we are also seeing accompanying that is no acknowledgement that anything is wrong: “There is nothing to fix.”
We have got these wonderful schemes and surveys. The minister does not need a survey, as mentioned in his ministerial statement, to find out what is going on at Calwell High School. How about he goes there and sees what the workplace is like? How about he goes to the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit to see what it is like, or is he just going to wait for a survey? Where is the reality here? A reality check is needed. A government that cannot deliver real results and real protections for the community does not deserve to be in government.
I do not care how many high-sounding rhetorical statements or ministerial statements we get that “everything is okay” and “here is what we are doing”. If it is not actually dealing with what is happening in Canberra, it is both irrelevant and insulting to the people of this great city. I am astounded, really, that the minister could not even find time in a pre-prepared statement to add some sympathy for the teachers and students at Calwell High School. Does he even care about what is happening there? You could not tell from what he said this morning. You could not tell, Madam Assistant Speaker, whether he had any care at all for the nurses at the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit.
Find a reference, please. Maybe there is a little sense of sympathy and concern and real interest for Canberrans who are doing it very tough at the moment in those two places. It is not just the nurses in their workplace or the teachers and students at that school but all those families that are connected to them, and their friends. There is a
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