Page 1936 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 1992
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The feasibility study that was conducted following the collapse of the Alliance Government has been mentioned. That is a matter of history. We were unable to reverse the fast-tracking which had been commenced by the Liberals when in government. We talked about the establishment of public health facilities such as rehabilitation and aged care, convalescent facilities, and the Queen Elizabeth II home for mothers and babies. The Government's election priorities for this term included commitments related to the Acton Peninsula site as a site for public health facilities, in public ownership - there is no question about that - with rehab and aged care services, convalescent facilities, the Queen Elizabeth II home for mothers and babies and a hospice.
There has been some agitation about the location of the hospice. Calvary Hospital have argued that they see it as a site for a hospice. I see that Mr Moore is not so keen for the hospice to be at the Calvary site and he has clarified his position in relation to that. We also talked in our election commitment about the establishment of a chair of community medicine, a chair of rehab and aged care, as part of a centre of excellence on aged care at the Acton Peninsula.
At the moment, as members would have learnt from Mr Moore's speech, there are some complex planning issues that have to be worked through. There is no point in kidding ourselves; we have to go through that process. At the same time we have to deal with inherited problems within the health budget which we are committed to sorting out. We are committed to containing both capital and ongoing costs and there are, of course, some deficiencies in the coverage of the present system. We have to sort those things out through the capital budget and other areas of budget management. There are many competing demands for additional services and unquestionably they will be addressed from time to time by the Labor Government in its quest to strengthen the public hospital and health system in the Australian Capital Territory.
The ACT community deserves a well-organised, accessible system of health care. The Government, as I have said, is committed to creating a public health system which is available to every single member of the community, and I plan to continue to maintain, improve and provide resources to secure a high quality public hospital system. I do not think there is any question about the level of commitment to the provision of those services, including the provision of public health facilities in accordance with our earlier commitments for the Acton Peninsula. It is an important site for the future development of the ACT. There are important planning issues to be addressed. It is not a process that can be rushed and it is assuredly a process that needs to be done correctly.
At the end of the day, Madam Speaker, there are some buildings on the site which will be inappropriate for future services in the Territory. Some will be redundant. I guess that the grand plan for the site will feature the resolution of the future of those buildings on the site. Much has to be done. Of course, as time passes, as Mr Kaine has said, there will be increasing information about the sorts of facilities and uses which will be made of the buildings on that site.
MADAM SPEAKER: The discussion is concluded.
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