Page 2898 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
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hospice, but can be found next year, when the situation is going to be even tighter than it is now, is a mystery to me. I think it is extremely unlikely that that hospice will go ahead at all under this Government, and certainly not in 1992.
We have to ask ourselves the question: Are these the acts of a government really interested in social justice, to borrow their phrase? I note that, when answering Dr Kinloch's very careful question, Mr Berry complained that the hospice would cost as much as $600,000 a year to run. We have heard that figure before. It is the same sum Mr Wood used when he was forced to reveal the annual cost of reopening two tiny schools for a handful of students. What an amazing set of priorities this Government has. There is no provision at the present time for a hospice in the ACT. There are alternative educational opportunities for children who are presently attending the Cook and Lyons schools.
Mr Kaine: The elite schools.
MR HUMPHRIES: The elite schools of Cook and Lyons. It has a very interesting set of priorities indeed. It is okay to reopen those small schools, but it is not okay to look after and care for the interests of the terminally ill. It is much easier and much more electorally appealing to junk the hard decisions made by the Alliance Government on the hospice than to do anything constructive about improving the situation.
The convalescent unit has been equally badly treated. The Follett Government ditched the Alliance Government's commitment to that unit and its firm plans to establish a 30-bed convalescent facility on the Acton Peninsula. The Alliance Government had committed $450,000 in last year's budget for this project, but those firm plans are now off the agenda. They have been turfed and an open-ended promise to locate rehabilitation and aged care facilities on the Acton Peninsula at some time in the future has been made. Again: "When we have the money; at some point down the track; we will get to it later on; do not worry about it; leave it to us". It really is not good enough. This Government has ratted on the promises made by the Alliance Government to the aged in this community.
Mr Berry: This is new for you. I have heard this before.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is a good word; I like it. They have ratted on those commitments and they are replacing them with nebulous, unfunded, unspecific alternatives, ephemeral alternatives, here today, gone tomorrow promises, which we know from long exposure to these people opposite are about as good and reliable as the promises made by them last time they were in government and not implemented at that time. The facts are clear. The Alliance Government had committed funds to the convalescent facility; Mr Berry has not.
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