Page 3067 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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that, just as it would have been not impossible - anything is possible if you are prepared to pay for it - but highly irresponsible for an incoming Labor Government to attempt to reverse the inevitability of the Alliance Government's decision.
It rolls off the tongue very easily when you are an independent member in a position of perpetual opposition and Mr Moore can say, "Well, it would only be another $13m recurrent expenditure. You can find that money somewhere". Mr Deputy Speaker, $13m would have to come either from other programs within the health area or from programs outside of health, from welfare, from schooling, or from massively increased taxation. This Territory just does not have $13m. If Mr Moore's assertions are to be given credibility, if Mr Moore says that it is possible to reopen Royal Canberra Hospital and that this Assembly should do precisely that, it is incumbent upon him to demonstrate how that can be funded. It is incumbent upon him to explain to this Assembly where that will come from by way of additional taxation, or what programs would be closed.
The Labor Government's decision on this was not taken with any degree of cheer or enthusiasm. We were in a position, like King Canute facing the tide, where there was no alternative. The former Alliance Government's policy decisions made the abandonment of a public hospital facility on the Acton Peninsula an inevitability, a sad inevitability. The Labor Government, responsibly and having carefully and impartially assessed the factual situation by way of a very short and quick consultancy report, found the decision inevitable. This Government will stand by that decision. Mr Berry acted in a most responsible manner on that.
I am sure that the community, while lamenting the passing of Royal Canberra Hospital on that site, will realise that it was the stewardship of the health system during the period of Mr Humphries' administration, the frantic throwing of money at the redevelopment proposals on the Woden site, the locking in to that redevelopment, that made the closure irreversible, and that no responsible government could change that position. The Labor Party's position, Mr Deputy Speaker, will stand up to any scrutiny. We acted responsibly throughout.
DR KINLOCH (4.25): The Rally endorses the bulk of Mr Moore's comments and many of Mr Humphries' comments, and we express continued anxiety about the Labor Party's continual spreading of that smokescreen about private hospitals. Surely we can have health systems which include public and private facilities in due course. There is a need to be brief here, partly because of the length of time for the MPI and partly because much of this has been said before in previous debates.
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