Page 3652 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 October 1990
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Mr Kaine: I have tried it, mate. Have you? You should try it some time. As a well paid trade unionist, you have never had to live on the basic wage in your life.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister, please!
MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. These waiting lists are an indictment of the Government's performance. This Government's performance is outrageous. It has set out to kick the people who can least protect themselves when it comes to the delivery of public health services. It has a private medicine focus. There is no denying that; it has admitted it itself.
The public health hospital system has been allowed to decay in order to create a greater demand for private beds. That is why they have had to close the Royal Canberra Hospital. There was no other reason. They had to create an artificial environment which would encourage somebody to come and build their promised 150-bed private hospital. But the costs as yet have not been established. It is the tip of the iceberg for the taxpayers of the ACT. The costs are now blowing out by $1m a month, on the Government's own figures.
Mr Speaker, this Government's stewardship of the public hospital system in the ACT will go down in history as one of the greatest disasters. It is appalling that it should happen under the first Government of the ACT. What I am most disappointed about, among those areas of extreme disappointment, is Carmel Maher's position in all of this. Here is somebody who in the past has stood up for single parents and people who are disadvantaged, and they are the ones who are going to get kicked to death in this hospital restructuring program. They are the ones who are not going to be able to afford private health insurance or to pay over the counter like the Chief Minister can afford to do. There will be even longer waiting lists. This Government has not costed all its promises yet, even though the Minister responsible has said he would do so. They do not know how much it will cost.
This is about winding back the public hospital system to help their business mates - that is what it is about - and to ensure that there is a big handover of hospital services to the private sector. The great disgrace, of course, falls on the shoulders of the Residents Rally party. Mr Speaker, there will be even longer waiting lists while we wait for this Government to do something about public hospitals in the ACT.
Labor's achievements in just a few short months - the Berry plan - are a matter of record and a matter of extreme embarrassment for the Government members opposite. The lowest waiting lists were achieved from May to September in
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