Page 4996 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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During the course of 1989 we consulted with members of this Assembly on what we might do about the continuing provision of a hospital on the site at Acton. I appointed some members to a steering committee, I think it was called at that time, and a number of recommendations were made by that steering committee. Having considered closely the costings and estimates of the future costs of the provision of a hospital on that site, we, in consultation with members of this Assembly, decided to continue with a hospital on the Acton site.
That was not without cost. That was at a saving of about $3m per year in recurrent costs and it was considered at that time that we would have been able to contain that within budget. What we clearly have to understand is that at that very point we were at odds with the committee which had set itself up to augment Royal Canberra Hospital, the ARCH committee. We were at odds from the time we made that decision because they wanted to enhance the facilities on the Acton site at the expense of other facilities throughout the ACT.
We were offside with those people from day one. There was a demonstration out here, as members may recall, where they expressed their concerns about Labor being offside with them. We have never been onside with ARCH from day one, because our position quite clearly was different. We were talking of a much smaller hospital than that which was sought by the ARCH committee.
There was never any misconception about this. The Liberals in the Alliance had indicated, during the course of consultation about the hospital system that Labor had previously decided upon, that they would not necessarily be committed to the provision of a hospital on the Acton site. Very soon after they took office they made it clear that they were not going to proceed with a hospital on that site. There is no question about that.
Mr Humphries: So, we were consistent as well.
MR BERRY: That is right. There is no question about that, although you did not make your position clear in the consultation process.
Mr Humphries: You did not actually ask me, as I recall.
MR BERRY: You hedged a bit. I think we talked to you and Trevor; but, in any event - it is a while ago - there was no secret about the Liberals' position. The Residents Rally, on the other hand, the No Self Government people, and Michael Moore had a very clear position; they wanted a hospital on that site.
My understanding of the No Self Government position at that time was that they just wanted a hospital, and what we proposed was good enough. The Residents Rally had a policy which was consistent with ARCH's position, which was to
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