Page 5175 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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What the Labor Party is about is ensuring that the hospital service delivers services to both the top and the bottom end of town. The Labor Party is about ensuring that the ordinary worker in the street receives as good a service as would be received by those with money who are able to afford the expensive private hospital services that this Government plans. This Government, of course, seeks not to expand the involvement in the board to include those people. What the Labor Party sets out to do, of course, is to ensure that women have an equal involvement in the management of the hospital services by virtue of the fact that they make up at least half of the community and, of course, they are the ones that use the hospital services most.
Mr Humphries cannot walk away from the fact that this Government is denying those people an involvement in the process of managing the hospital system and implementing the functions which the board has the power to implement - irrespective, of course, of the Minister's right under the legislation to direct the board to act in accordance with his wishes, and philosophical commitment, I suspect. But Mr Humphries does not seem to understand that the management of our hospital system is a philosophical issue. It is something that he should squirm about because, as I have pointed out and will continue to point out, even though it makes the Chief Minister uncomfortable, this is a Government of privatisation; it is a Government that is about looking after the top end of town. It has demonstrated that. It is supported by other political parties - the Residents Rally party, to name one - in its quest. It denies social justice, and it will continue to do so.
The Labor Party while ever it draws breath will continue to focus attention on the mismanagement which is inherent in the administration, and we will also while ever we draw breath make it clear to the community that the Government is attempting to mislead it - and will continue to do so. This Minister has made misleading statements that mislead the community. The Chief Minister has done it, and we will continue to focus attention on that.
What this Bill represents is a major change in direction in the delivery of hospital services in the Territory. The fact of the matter is that the Bill, of course, seeks to ensure that the Minister will have the right to further privatise hospital services; he will be able to direct the board to take certain actions in accordance with his philosophical position. But what is most important about the Government's position on this issue is that it now seeks to exclude very important sectors of the community from involvement in the delivery of those services. I suspect that they do that because they are concerned that it would increase the awareness in the community of what they are on about philosophically. It certainly has not fazed the Residents Rally party.
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