Page 2514 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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philosophical reasons - no more than that. It has been a move to close the hospital before the community of the ACT had a chance to change the government. I suspect that, somewhere amongst the melee of discussions that went on about the speeding up of the amalgamation, some had in their minds, "If we can get it under way and have it secured by the end of 1991, if there is a change of government in 1992, which seems likely, it would be something that is settled and could not be reversed and the community, whatever they said, would have no say in the matter".
That is certainly what happened in the hospitals debate. It was said, quite publicly, that people were in a hurry to get all of this done, as much money as possible committed and as much construction as possible under way, so that any future government - anticipating that there was going to be a change in the flavour of politics in the ACT - would not be able to reverse it. That was the position that was taken quite publicly.
What annoys me most in this debate is the way that some of our Residents Rally colleagues have tended to dodge all of the blame; it is somebody else's fault. That is disappointing. It is about time that they stood quiet on this issue and accepted that they were part of the process, quite clearly. For them to come out now and pretend that they are snow white is absolutely over the top. Indeed, it was the Residents Rally that was booted out. They did not walk away; they were booted out. They were quite happy to stay with the process, it seemed - and they were booted out.
I do not give Mr Kaine any credit for forming that Alliance, because I think it did the community of the ACT no good. But we have to accept at the end of the day that the collapse of the former Government was caused by the Residents Rally having been booted out. They wanted to stay with the process which had closed schools and inflicted damage on other community assets such as the health system - the process which, of course, created the difficulties that the community has had with the winding down of the public hospital system.
I think that the communities at the schools proposed to be amalgamated were left with the grim acceptance that something was about to change. With the change of government to a Labor government, a sizeable number of people in the community have thought that there might be further change, and they are entitled to have that view. They are entitled to have the view that Labor will consult with them, because we will.
I think it is, in all the circumstances, an outrageous motion. Mrs Nolan has to accept that we have a different philosophical position. We intend to consult with the community. We will not fast-track this amalgamation, because we have seen the damage that fast-tracking has
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