Page 992 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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I think even the Government acknowledges that priority should be given to the delivery of community health services at health centres out in the community; otherwise, as I have said earlier, we end up with the situation where people find their way into acute hospital beds before they need to. It is a simple fact that the ageing are not as mobile as the young - I think Mr Humphries would recognise that - and to force the ageing of Weston Creek to travel further to gain access to basic health services goes against the whole tenor of the Assembly's report on the ageing. It is about time that the Minister woke up to that and agreed with it.
This is an attack on the Weston Creek Health Centre and one has to ask the question: Is it just the thin end of the wedge? Is this Government going to undermine the whole health centre structure? It is becoming pretty obvious that they are pretty sensitive about the health centre structure. There has been enough concern out there in the community about perceived positions of the Government on health centres to worry me and the Labor Opposition sufficiently to fight for the retention of the health centre structure in the ACT. This Government has kept its credentials hidden. There is a secret agenda and they are not laying it on the line. The first of the health centres to go has been the Weston Creek Health Centre.
Last year, Mr Speaker, we also saw a move or signs of a move by the Government to close the Melba Health Centre. It was a welcome sign of community spirit that the people of Melba rose angrily against the Government's decision and the Government saw the error of its ways, we think, and backed off a little. We still do not know what the eventual plans for that health centre might be; but at least the Government is marking time, as far as we can make out, in response to the community's extreme anger about the suggestion that the Melba Health Centre would close.
Minister Duby jumped in and assured the community that their health centre would not close. I rather suspect that he did not have Mr Humphries' agreement to that when he did it. So much for Cabinet solidarity and loyalty in the Government opposite. It does not seem to exist, as we have witnessed by the quivering blades which have found themselves embedded in Mr Humphries' back in recent times. But we have to say, thankfully, that the Melba Health Centre has not closed and we look forward to its retention because it is an excellent health centre.
Bill Stefaniak, who I suspect sets out to represent the people of Weston Creek, has not done so well in all of this because he has not been able to deliver to the people of Weston Creek a program which ensures the retention of the Weston Creek Health Centre. I think we have to ensure that the campaign goes on. Mr Stefaniak has called for the people of Weston Creek to submit ideas for development or for new facilities in the area. He has said that there is a potential for many parts of Weston Creek to be further
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