Page 1001 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 1990
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centre. It is clear in its platform. Mr Humphries probably has not read it because he has been blinded by the rhetoric of his own party and his business mates. Nevertheless, that issue has to be made clear to ensure that members of this Assembly are clear on the position of the Labor Party.
Ms Maher, it is all right for you to stand up and say that you have a commitment in relation to the provision of better services for women and a commitment to women, but I have to say, with all respect, that recent events - and I talk about the last 12 months or so - would not convince anybody that you will stand by that commitment. Neither would it convince anybody that Mr Duby would stand by that commitment because of the "changiness" - if I could be so kind - of your attitudes on a range of issues, not the least of which has been the Royal Canberra Hospital. That, of course, will come up later today in debate. I think that there will be a growing lack of confidence amongst women, and rightly so, that the Executive Deputy alleged to be supportive to the Chief Minister will be able to swing anything in favour of the provision of obstetric services for women in the ACT. I think the speech today by Mr Humphries will clarify that issue. It will be crystal clear about what is happening to obstetric services in the ACT.
The traditional Liberal line has won over and everybody else has missed it. They just let it slip past. Perhaps they are not game to oppose it or they might have changed their colours again. The fact of the matter is that Labor was happy to see that Mr Humphries supported plans for a birthing centre. We are not happy, of course, that it has been shoved over to the south side where women from the north side of Canberra will be disadvantaged and be forced to travel further. But a simple promise of a birth centre without the support for ancillary services and other programs on which the success of such a centre depends is short-sighted.
It fails to recognise a range of complex issues surrounding the delivery of obstetric services in the ACT, and the Government will not be helped by people like Mr Collaery - a man who simply does not understand the issues, despite his protestations to the contrary. The fact of the matter is that he just does not understand and, in my view, he does not appear to care much either. I think it is important that we ensure that obstetric beds remain in the public health system and are not privatised. I go back to the statement made earlier by the Government which again misled this Assembly by suggesting that it supported Labor's motion. Clearly it does not, because in his speech, Mr Humphries made it clear that there will be a shifting of obstetric beds into the private sector.
The Government will support the move by the AMA to move obstetric beds to John James Hospital.
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