Page 2675 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 1991
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The Labor Party had the opportunity, as you had, to honour the will of the people. What has Rosemary Follett done? She has reneged on her promise. What is the justification for politicians reneging on promises? I have never heard of one that did not tie up with, "Oh, it is too expensive now. We did not know any of this. We did not realise. If only we had known, we never would have made the promise. It only matters what the people want when we have the money", and so on.
Some 50,000 people in Canberra, of an electorate of 170,000-odd, signed a petition saying, "We want Royal Canberra Hospital kept open". That is a fairly simple message to members of this Assembly. It was not "if it is feasible"; it was not "if you think it might be okay", or anything else.
Mr Kaine: It was not even "if we can afford it", which some people might listen to.
MR STEVENSON: We have surveyed that as well. The people want it kept open, even if there is an added cost. We asked them that. They still wanted it kept open. That is the policy that the people of Canberra have on the Royal Canberra Hospital. The role of members in this Assembly should be - it is legally - that they follow the will of the people that they accept the policy from the majority of people in Canberra and take the necessary administrative actions to implement that policy. We have a situation where the will of the people has not been represented but has been rejected.
Mr Moore mentioned that he would be perfectly happy to introduce the Bill that Rosemary Follett introduced to keep the Royal Canberra Hospital open or to reopen it. Indeed, I am of absolutely the same mind. The only changes needed to the Bill, I believe, are some changes to the list of services contained in the schedule. If there are enough people in this Assembly who will now do what the people want, and if the people of Canberra, in the valiant way they have done in the past, go along to their members, who knows, the Liberal Party, now being in what they call opposition, may well say, "Yes, under the circumstances, and looking at what we have dragged out from under the bed, we now see that the Labor Party is wrong and it should be maintained". It would be a good day if the Royal Canberra Hospital were kept open.
Who knows what will happen to the site once the hospital is closed? The suggestion that it will be maintained for community health services was not the promise the Labor Party made. They promised to keep it open as a hospital; the people want it kept open as a hospital; they should keep it open as a hospital. Indeed, no doubt a Bill will be introduced in this Assembly to do that, and anyone who cares about the will of the people of Canberra will vote to keep it open.
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