Page 3420 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
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We introduced into this Assembly legislation to save Royal Canberra Hospital. We did so, I repeat, on 6 June 1990, exactly one year ahead of the return of the second Follett Government. What did Rosemary Follett say during her speech - a speech, I might add, much interrupted by members of the then Government? What she said has stuck in my mind, and it has been said by the Labor Party and its spokespeople outside from time to time, but people like Mr Moore ignore it. She said:
The Bill that I have presented today offers a last opportunity for members opposite to show that they are prepared to listen to the desires of the Canberra community and to act to protect public health services.
It was the last opportunity, because Mr Humphries was fast-tracking the hospital redevelopment.
Mr Humphries: You still are.
MR WOOD: Indeed, we still are. There is no question about that. Rosemary Follett said, "After today it is too late". In fact, it had already gone a long way down the track. The Bill did not come through, because the Government did not want to know about it; but, if that Bill had been accepted into the Assembly and passed, Royal Canberra Hospital would have been saved. But that was the last opportunity, because after that events proceeded too rapidly, too far. When Mr Berry became the Health Minister again one year later, he had a review to see whether it was possible to reverse that process. It was not possible to do so because of the cost.
Mr Moore: Rubbish! That is where you are wrong.
MR WOOD: It would be possible; but the cost, Mr Moore, is something that nobody - - -
Mr Moore: The cost was no different than in 1991 when Rosemary Follett tabled that Bill.
MR WOOD: No, it was not. The processes had gone so far that it was quite irreversible. I think these claims about breaking promises are just so much nonsense.
I want to come back to the document about which some people made a fuss some months ago when it was released by the people who have responsibility for the planning of Acton Peninsula, the National Capital Planning Authority. They are the planning agents, and everyone knows that. There was some comment at that time that they paid no attention to health matters and the possibility of health facilities on that site. Let me put this in the perspective - I am sure that most of us are now familiar with the way these things occur - of the planners, the National Capital Planning Authority, who prepared this. It is a planning document. It places a great deal of emphasis on the way things look, locations, how it fits in with the city, environmental matters, and a whole host of things. It does not really give much attention at all to what might go on it. There is a lot of speculation about possible land uses. It says:
... our view is that the following wide range of potential land uses should be explored as part of a mixed use development ...
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