Page 1043 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 1990
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particularly those in the inner suburbs. This morning as I went out to pick up my newspaper, somebody walking by said, "Michael, whatever you do, do what you can to save the Royal Canberra Hospital". Later on I went out to bring in my bin and somebody else said to me, "Hey Michael - Royal Canberra Hospital, see what you can do".
Mr Kaine: Give them the bill and see what they say. They will not be asking to save it then.
MR MOORE: It seems to me that the Chief Minister makes some stupid decisions because of some short term monetary gains. In the long term, this is going to be very expensive for the people of the ACT because this hospital is going to be so run down that when our numbers increase and we need that extra area, it will be too far gone to resuscitate and we will have to look at building a new hospital. This is a short term solution.
Mr Duby: It will not be run down, it will be knocked down.
MR MOORE: As Mr Duby interjects, it will be knocked down. I refer him to Geoff Pryor's most apt cartoon this morning which shows the sharks swimming around the Royal Canberra Hospital. That is the way people perceive it and people also perceive that they were promised that the Royal Canberra Hospital would not be part of the budget cuts. There are spots to raise money and I have drawn the Chief Minister's attention to the sort of betterment tax that will be forgone on one project alone on Northbourne Avenue - there is an absolute fortune in it and it is within his responsibility, his area and his power to determine that lease. If he still wants to develop it along the lines of medium density housing, then the profits on that land should come back to the people of Canberra who own the land. There is money around to be gained in that area. This Government thinks it can make some hard decisions that take away from the services that are provided to people who cannot afford any others, but it is not prepared to make some hard decisions about matters such as betterment tax or to look at the maladministration of the leasehold system which I have illustrated and will continue to illustrate through question time. I am sure the Government can expect some more questions about that particular site because there is a lot more to come out about it.
The people of Canberra expect people like myself and Dr Kinloch to keep to the election promises we made that Canberra Hospital would not close down. I cannot help wondering if that is one of the reasons why Mr Donohue is going to resign tonight as President of the Residents Rally. One cannot help wondering if another reason is the broken promise over big bins. One cannot help wondering if he cannot stand the notion of his broken promises about the Canberra Times site. One cannot help wondering if the final straw is the broken promise about Royal Canberra Hospital. Perhaps he can no longer stand being approached by the
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