Page 287 - Week 01 - Thursday, 24 February 1994
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This man has no compassion. He has no intention of putting a hospice any place but where he unilaterally decided it was going to go. To heck with the patients. He does not care about them. The bottom line, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is that this Minister should go. We talk about the Ministers over the other side of the lake who have inflicted not even half the damage to society that this man has done, but he sits there and we do not even tell him that he should go. Well, I am telling him. The Chief Minister, unfortunately, is not here, but she should hear this. She should do a proper analysis of what is happening in our health system, and he should go.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.06): In the limited time that is left to me I would like to make the point that this debate was supposed to be about the hospice. One of the decisions for which this Government will be applauded for years to come will be the visionary decision to place the hospice on Acton Peninsula - a decision which patently is supported by a majority of members of this Assembly and, we firmly believe, the majority of members of the community. Mr Moore put it very clearly when he described the physical beauty and the serenity of that site. That cannot compare with a hospice at any hospital. Both of our public hospitals in this Territory, both Woden and Calvary, are fine public hospitals; but they are institutional facilities.
Mrs Carnell: Have you had a look at the bushland setting out the back? It is very nice.
MR CONNOLLY: I have, indeed; by the car park where you are looking out at an institution - - -
Mrs Carnell: No, no, out the back; not the car park.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, out the back, where I was parking regularly in September last year, where that block building is. It is an institutional facility. As has been shown by Mr Berry and Mr Moore, when you have a hospice next to a high-tech hospital there is an increasing tendency to apply the high-tech to the patients. It is not what people need at that time of their life. They want serenity. They want a place where their families can see them, and then reflect in pleasant, attractive surroundings. What we are delivering on the Acton Peninsula, one of the most beautiful sites in Canberra, one of the most beautiful public facilities in this community, will serve this and future generations of Canberrans extraordinarily well. In 10 or 20 years' time people will reflect on the foresight of this Government in placing that facility on one of the best sites, the most beautiful sites, in the Australian Capital Territory.
Madam Speaker, Mr Moore very effectively made the point about political footballs and health. There is something you notice as you travel round the country these days. You used to notice the differences. There were different types of beer and different types of bread available around Australia. Now you notice the similarities. The greatest similarity is that oppositions, of whatever political persuasion, are bagging governments, of whatever political persuasion, about waiting lists and bed numbers. The name of the game in health administration has changed. We treat people, not beds. We look at throughput and performance outputs. It is interesting to see in Victoria how the AMA is
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