Page 2676 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 1991
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MR JENSEN (4.46): Mr Speaker, I wish to speak very briefly. During his speech Mr Berry said:
Mr Speaker, at no stage did the Labor Party promise to reopen a community hospital at Acton.
As Mr Stevenson has already indicated, if we go back to 6 June 1990 we will find, on page 2136 of the Hansard, a Bill called the Royal Canberra Hospital Bill 1990. It was introduced into the Assembly by Ms Follett. It seems to me that that Bill was designed specifically to reopen the Royal Canberra Hospital. On page 2137 of the Hansard of 6 June 1990 - that is interesting; it was 12 months to the day prior to the change of government - Ms Follett said:
This Bill is yet another demonstration of the fact that the Labor Party sticks by the promises it made to the Canberra community at the election last year.
We have here a situation where Mr Berry has indicated to this house that the Labor Party made no such promises. If the Labor Party did not make such promises, why did Ms Follett say that on 6 June 1990 and why did we see this Bill put forward at the time? Was it really just a political stunt on the part of the Labor Party, because they knew full well that they really did not mean to reopen the Royal Canberra Hospital when they got an opportunity?
Once again, I think it is important sometimes to remember, in a parliament such as this, that there will be occasions when, if you are not awfully careful, the boomerang will whiz back your way and take your head off very quickly. It seems to me that in this case the now minority Labor Government have been caught at their own game, caught at the game of seeking political expediency. That is all they were trying to do. They were not really trying to reopen Royal Canberra Hospital, because they knew that the numbers were not there. In fact, what they were saying in this Hansard effectively was, "We are just taking political points and nothing else". That is what we can expect from a Labor Government that, unfortunately, has no real commitment to the community of the ACT.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport) (4.49), in reply: This issue is one of concern to the community. There have been some half-truths in the course of debate. I will start with Mr Jensen. Mr Jensen talked about what happened a year ago, but he very carefully structured his speech to avoid telling the Assembly how much money had been committed by the Alliance Government to the hospital redevelopment project and to the fast-tracking. I ask Mr Jensen whether he knows. I do not think he does, but I think he has very carefully avoided raising the issue, because that is the very reason that Labor has been robbed of the opportunity to reopen Royal Canberra Hospital. The fast-tracking and the commitment of massive amounts of the Territory's funds to the
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