Page 996 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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While I am on schools, I might just briefly touch on the points Mr Berry raised about them as well. He asked why it was that the ACT Government was closing schools in the Weston Creek area. I do not think there is any need to go over those arguments in detail. Mr Berry is one of the few people in the ACT who do not understand why this had to happen; but for his benefit I might remind him that there are seriously declining school-age populations in the Weston Creek area. That was the reason why this Government felt it necessary to close a primary school in that part of Canberra. It was very much the same reason why the former Federal Labor Government found it necessary to close a primary school in the same part of Canberra; that is, that there is a seriously declining school-age population there.
To return to the issue of health services moving out of the Weston Creek area - my colleagues Mr Stefaniak and Mr Collaery will touch on other things as well, such as the provision of other services on that site and, in particular, community services available in Weston Creek - it is quite erroneous and inaccurate of Mr Berry to portray the moving out of some facilities from the Weston Creek Health Centre as a denial of all those services to people in Weston Creek. It is simply false.
I will give you some examples. The community psychiatrist presently operates from Phillip. That person was previously located in the Weston Creek Health Centre. The psychiatry clients do not come just from Weston Creek; they come from all over the ACT. There are advantages in locating a facility like a psychiatrist at a major public transport interchange, or a major shopping centre like Phillip, together with a whole series of other facilities, in this case at the Phillip Health Centre.
The Opposition is quick to put out press releases saying that the people of Weston Creek lose out, but is not so quick to acknowledge that people in Woden or in other parts of the ACT to which services might be relocated benefit from these government decisions. They also fail to mention the benefits that flow to people in the Weston Creek area from the relocation into Weston Creek of certain services which the Government has decided to put there. That, of course, is glossed over; it is ignored; it is not important in the drive to make people think as little as possible or think as poorly as possible of this Government.
Other services were previously in the Weston Creek Health Centre. The infant and child health clinic was formerly there. It now operates at Minns Place in Weston and it operates with increased hours of service at neighbouring clinics, namely, Rivett, Waramanga and Duffy. The immunisation clinic for infants has been transferred to the Phillip Health Centre. An important part of all those services changes is that, because they have moved to those sorts of locations, there is the capacity to increase the operating hours of those services.
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