Page 3675 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 October 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the problem is very similar; yet Mr Berry claims that he has to make an 8.5 per cent cut, increase waiting lists and reduce bed numbers in our public hospital system. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, he is to blame for those decisions - nobody else.
Mr Moore said, I think wisely on this occasion, that it is one thing to have a policy but another to deliver on that policy. That is true. Labor has restated endlessly its commitment to public hospitals, accessible health care and giving everybody in the ACT free and accessible health care. But it just does not stack up; its actions and its words are entirely different things.
Mr Berry says that he is in favour of an accessible health system, but he cuts health spending by 8.5 per cent. Mr Berry, you cannot have accessible health care with an 8.5 per cent cut in the health budget. He says that he is in favour of high-quality health services; but at the same time he says that he is going to cut bed numbers by a figure that we do not quite know yet, and there are going to be longer waiting lists in our public hospitals. What were the standards, the measures, that he used in opposition to test the quality of our health services? They were waiting lists and bed numbers. Those were the two things that he used as a standard, and on those two criteria Mr Berry deserves to be condemned, because it is on those two criteria that our health system is in rapid decline.
This dichotomy between actions and words is so stark, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, that the tale of Animal Farm springs to mind. Napoleon the pig was constantly telling members of Animal Farm, "Things are getting better; with our leadership we will go on to a bright new future", when in fact things were getting worse and worse daily. That is the ACT of 1991 - Animal Farm.
The signs of trouble are there for all to see. Anyone who ignores them does so at his or her peril. We have had the concerns, the comments and the pleas of those involved in the health system coming through loud and clear. This morning's Matt Abraham program demonstrated very clearly the severe situation that is being experienced by some in our hospital and health services. There is very, very startling information about what is going on. I remind the Assembly that Mr Berry was very happy to use those sorts of cases in the period he was in opposition, to prove that there was a decline in the standard of our health services. Again, Mr Berry has been hoisted with his own petard.
There are also other very clear indications in the area of community nursing that things are amiss. Even before the revelations on this morning's Matt Abraham program, I had a very large volume of letters and correspondence from nurses who are concerned about what is happening in our community health services. I want to read briefly from one letter from a nurse to Mr Berry. I will not repeat the names, as
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .