Page 4997 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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augment the hospital; but they were satisfied with our position. Michael Moore, as part of the Rally - I think he was the health spokesperson in those days - was tied up in that as well. As we moved a little further down the track, of course, things changed. The No Self Government people adopted the Liberal position, as did the remaining members of the Residents Rally, who had joined with the conservative Alliance. We had a whole bunch of people who then decided to close the hospital.
Subsequent to the then Government making those decisions, we had always expressed concern that we would get past the point of no return. I think Mr Humphries in recent debate has even endorsed the fact that we made those statements. Labor made it clear that we would keep it open if we could. I think I might have even said, at a great barbecue or something down there, that we felt that we were getting close to the point of no return. I think I might have even said it on ABC radio once or twice. When we submitted to this Assembly the Bill to save Royal Canberra Hospital, our view, at that point, was that we would have been able to do so. Subsequently, the Alliance Government fell and Labor was in the position to make a decision on the Royal Canberra Hospital.
It would have been quite inappropriate for the new Minister for Health to rush in and overturn the previous Government's decision without closely examining the matter. It was closely examined. I do not think there is any question about the credibility of the people involved. There have been some accusations made about the links of the people who were involved in the review, but nothing of substance. There was an outrageous and inaccurate assessment of the whole situation in the Canberra Times recently, and it was very unfortunate that the Labor Party was not able to respond to the accusations that were made all through that article. It was an inaccurate report of events and it did the Canberra Times, I suspect, no good to report that matter the way that they did.
All of that aside, Michael Moore seeks - I suspect for political purposes - to ignore the fact that the former Government had committed tens of millions of dollars of the Territory's money to the closure of that hospital and the establishment of certain facilities on the Woden Valley site; fast-tracking all those things that have been discussed ad nauseam in this place. There is no point in going over them all again. Mr Moore misreads the report and misreads all of the events. The fact of the matter was that there were tens of millions of dollars committed to the project on the other side of the lake and Labor was not in a position to make a decision to maintain the Royal Canberra Hospital on the Acton site.
The Residents Rally are out of this now. They have blotted their copybook, and the best thing they can do is shut up.
Mr Collaery: You are getting worried, aren't you?
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