Page 3644 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 October 1990
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Mr Speaker, the impact of these decisions has not been considered before the announcement. The domino effect that has raced away from this has led to the Therapy Centre being evicted, as I said earlier, and now the Weston Creek Health Centre and the Weston Creek Community Service will be affected by the decision.
The Weston Creek Community Service will be split in half. I will give you an example of consultation that went on in relation to this matter. The Weston Creek Community Service was advised by a telephone call that it was going to be torn asunder. That is the sort of community consultation that we have from this Government. The community have had no say at all in this issue. They will pay these people back - we all know that - but they have to put up with them for the next little while. This Government seems intent on delivering difficult decisions and is prepared to attack community facilities over and over again.
Why should the people of Weston Creek have to pay for this Government's lack of planning? Preschools, primary schools, high schools and health centres are closing, all because of the lack of examination of the social impact of this very important decision that the Government has made. The impact of it, of course, will be disastrous to some families in the ACT.
What have the people of Weston Creek done to deserve this treatment? What have the aged in Weston Creek done to deserve this treatment? What about the Life Education Centre? What happened to it? These people have been pushed from pillar to post because there has been no planning about this issue. The Residents Rally has to take some of the responsibility for this. The Residents Rally members pretended to be something that they were not; the Liberal Party members pretended to be something that they were not; and, of course, the now Independents people pretended to be something that they were not.
The Weston Creek Community Service is located in two buildings at Cooleman Court, and I suspect that the Government members did not know that when they made the decision. Of course, the Health Centre facility that they occupy has now been denied them. So they are just another victim, and it is the aged that the Government has attacked in this case. It has attacked them by virtue of its attack on the school system.
What about the Independent Living Centre at Macquarie? Is that just another victim of the Government's decision to be brushed aside? The Residents Rally might look, too, at the issue of small businessmen. What about the men and women? What about the nearby chemist who takes referrals from the Independent Living Centre? No thought was given to them in the planning process - none at all. The social impact was not looked at.
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