Page 4760 - Week 15 - Thursday, 16 December 1993
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ACT Health is well poised to be one of the leading health systems in Australia as we approach the year 2000. There is no question about that. Despite claims of inactivity by those opposite, there has been an extraordinary amount of work carried out. The hospital redevelopment is continuing to progress. The paediatric unit is completed and tomorrow I will open the forecourt and entry precinct. The diagnostic and treatment block is scheduled to open in the first half of next year, and the refurbished areas of the hospital are proving their value. Earlier this year ACT Health signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Sydney to establish a clinical school in the ACT. Nobody else had the courage to do that. The progress of the redevelopment - - -
Mrs Carnell: But you need doctors.
MR BERRY: We do not need doctors with a blank cheque. We are not going to have them with a blank cheque. There will be no blank cheques from this Government. It is all right for those opposite to be irresponsible. We saw how irresponsible they were when they were dealing with the Government's budget. They are not fit to govern. They were irresponsible in dealing with the Government's budget. There is no question about it. It is well recognised out in the community. You are on the slippery slide downhill, and a good thing too. Community health has improved, but I will list just some of the achievements. There are extended hours at the Dickson day care centre; there was the establishment of a family day care centre at Monash; expansion of the methadone program; introduction of community health complaints; and, of course, the elderly injury prevention project.
The Health Complaints Unit legislation was carried yesterday. There is the pilot language group for older children and a nutritional clinic; an early intervention outreach program at Melba preschool; establishment of a clinic for adolescents with disabilities; the public health infectious and notifiable diseases regulations were amended; there was the extension of the immunisation program to include HIV, and the introduction of the HIV strategic plan for the ACT. Madam Speaker, these are just a few. We have reached an agreement with the Family Planning Association whereby they will provide minor surgical procedures in one of our establishments. That is something that has been demanded in the ACT for many years. All of these things were condemned by those Liberals opposite.
All of this progress in both the public hospitals and in community health would not be possible without the successful negotiation of the Medicare agreement. Those opposite would have supported the undoing of the Medicare agreement. They tried to knock Labor over in the last election; but they failed, thankfully, and the people of Australia are grateful for that. Before the Medicare agreement was signed we had the Opposition whingeing and complaining, as they always do. I suppose that that is what we can expect from those opposite. There is no doubt in my mind, and there should be no doubt in the minds of the community, that what they were about was undoing our universal health care system. That is what they were on about. There is no question about it. That was the big hidden agenda. In the end the agreement provides bonuses for the ACT because it makes sure that our public health system is properly funded and that the profitable parts are not handed over to the private sector, are not privatised. The profitable parts are all you would be interested in privatising.
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