Page 2293 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 1993
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Madam Speaker, the myth - I will not use any stronger language than that - has been pushed by Mr Berry in this place that the community or certain informed parts of the community supported the idea of the hospice being located on Acton Peninsula. Madam Speaker, all I can say is that I do not know what he is talking about, because the list of people I have, and the information I have from those people, those informed sections of the community, is very different. First of all, let me quote a letter from the ACT Hospice Society to the Chief Minister of the ACT, dated 3 March 1992 and received on 6 March 1992 with a stamp marked "Deputy Chief Minister". I do not know why it went to the Deputy Chief Minister rather than the Chief Minister; nonetheless, in this letter from John Ballard, president of the ACT Hospice Society, we have this paragraph:
We submit that the provision of a hospice by grant aid to Calvary would be preferable -
I repeat, preferable -
to the provision through a fully Government owned/managed facility. We believe it would also be significantly cheaper to the tax payer.
Obviously, that "Government owned/managed facility" he was referring to was a facility on Acton Peninsula. That was the view of the Hospice Society. Did you not tell us before, Minister, that the Hospice Society backed up your decision?
Mr Berry: The former president did, in writing in the Canberra Times, and he was on the working party.
MR HUMPHRIES: You have not misled the Assembly, by any chance, have you, Minister? Did you not say that the Hospice Society supported your view? Apparently it does not. What about the chairman of the Board of Health? What is his view on this matter? Did you suggest that he was supportive of your point of view? This letter from him to you, which is dated 20 August 1991, says:
There is widespread commendation for your decision to proceed with a hospice. However there are significant issues in both operational and cost terms about locating it at Acton. I will review these with you at your meeting on 3 September.
What did Mr Service think, I wonder. He obviously did not see it the same way you do, Minister. He did not see this as being a great swell of public support in favour of your wonderful election promise to locate it on the Acton Peninsula. What about the Council on the Ageing? Do you think that they are experts, Minister? The Council on the Ageing represent the elderly of our community. What about them? We do not hear any answers from the Minister, as usual. I have a letter from them, dated 10 June 1993, to, in this case, the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning, Mr Wood, and in this letter they ask a series of questions. I will read some of those questions:
1. A planning committee was appointed by the government but prior to its recommendations being finalised, plans for the site have been announced and construction of the hospice commenced. Why?
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