Page 2814 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 August 1990
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it has made to explore the benefits that will accrue to the people of Canberra through the creation of a clinical school such as this. I think we should ask ourselves why it is the Opposition seems to be so intent on attacking that proposal - and they are attacking it, let us make no bones about it. They clearly do not accept the idea that such a school will provide considerable benefits to the people of Canberra and that we, therefore, as a serious legislature, ought to consider very carefully what those benefits will be and seek to specify and quantify them so that we can assess, as a parliament and as a government, just whether it is worth committing the resources necessary towards that end to achieve those benefits. That is all, apparently, lost over the heads of those opposite.
Mr Berry described the result of that committee's inquiries, this report, as a quick-fix. Well, if that is the case, I think we have had a lot of quick-fixes over the years in this Assembly and elsewhere in respect of many major problems faced by the Territory. I reject the assertion that that is a quick-fix. I think it is a careful, considered opening shot, if you like. There will have to be a very important debate to establish what those benefits are for the people of Canberra.
Apparently Mr Berry thinks that however far the Government goes in looking at this issue is too far; that however much commitment it makes towards seriously examining this concept is too much of a commitment. I think that Mr Berry really ought to realise that there are considerable benefits beyond the narrow vision that he can espy. He should realise that the people of Canberra stand to be the big winners from a proposal such as this and it at least deserves to be progressed positively, in a positive environment, to the next stage. Mr Berry obviously has no conception of positive debate on anything, and this is clearly a case where he would rather kick and scratch and knock down than make a positive contribution.
I think that it is worth looking at the processes whereby this has been progressed so far. My colleague Mr Jensen pointed out, very properly, that there has, in fact, been a level of consultation in the preparation of this document which is entirely appropriate. It is an entirely appropriate level of consultation. It is a subject which naturally attracts debate. It is quite obvious that the sort of information contained in this document should properly be discussed and debated, and, at this stage, at a fairly technical level. I refer members to appendix B, which indicates the sorts of persons that made submissions to the inquiry. They were almost all doctors or professors of medicine, and it is pretty clear that the debate has, at this stage, been a very technical one.
I think that it is an entirely appropriate level of debate, but to suggest, as does Mr Berry, that there has not been any consultation at all is pretty hard to sustain. The fact is that this is only the first step. There are many
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