Page 2664 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 1991
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This whole process has been a disgrace. It has left the ACT $50,000 and two months short of the goals set for it by the Alliance Government. I believe that Mr Berry has furiously attempted to rejig things and has not succeeded in any great sense. The people of the ACT will be the losers from this process. It is they whose money has been wasted.
DR KINLOCH (4.05): I must say that my heart has sunk as I have read much of Mr Berry's ministerial statement. There are a few areas about which we can agree and, although I would endorse much that Mr Humphries has said, I think there is too much axe-grinding going on on both sides of the chamber about what the Alliance Government did or did not do. On the question of private hospitals, on behalf of the Rally I would like to say that what we want is excellent hospitals. Frankly, I do not care whether they are private or public, provided we have enough of them and enough beds, looking to the next century and to a time when we will have a very much greater percentage of older people in the Canberra community.
However, there are some good items. I am glad to note the support for Calvary Hospital. That would seem to be very worthwhile, although I think there will be members of the Calvary Hospital community who will be distressed to find that the hospice they thought they would have is not immediately to be available there. I will come to that later. I do think the private hospitals discussion is a kind of smokescreen to cover over some areas that have not even been approached in Mr Berry's comments. In particular, I am very distressed, very sad indeed, to think that there will not be a community convalescent hospital. We really looked to the Labor Party to have that. I thought that was going to happen; I thought that was on the agenda. I am very distressed to find that it is not. I hope that those reporting on this event today will recognise that we are losing something we very badly need.
Mr Berry's statement has raised a number of questions about the delivery of health services in the ACT, not only hospital care but also general community health. I want to present the Rally's viewpoint on a number of issues. These views are derived from frequent meetings between doctors, health administrators and users, including a subcommittee of the Rally's executive, and I am very grateful to that committee. Professional specialists may recognise some of their own words in what I say. I am sure they would not object to my further projection of their views. I am particularly grateful to Professor R.M. Douglas for his public statements. This is a whole area that is not covered in Mr Berry's statement.
The Residents Rally's platform on health is centred on community health care, and again that reminds us of the need for a community convalescent hospital, especially for cost reasons. We wish to emphasise again and again the need for that, as for a hospice, on the Acton Peninsula, or
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