Page 1078 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 April 1994
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She has never, for example, said too much about what her policies would be, where she would get the money from and so on. Of course, that will be the big test for Mrs Carnell. With all of her complaints, let her put numbers alongside what she wants and what she is going to pay for them with. When it comes to the big assessment, the money tree down the backyard just does not count.
The ACT Liberal Party health hotline report was a real stunt. It talks about 110 calls. I had a quick skim through it and I added up 50 or so calls that were reported. I heard somewhere along the way that 40 or 40 per cent of the callers were employees. I see that only one is reported. The section on ACT Health management states:
Comments were received from a cross-section of ACT Health employees and the majority were unfavourable. Most callers referred to problems at Woden Valley Hospital ...
We did not hear of all the ones that said good things about the hospital system, because that would have really exposed what this report was all about. It is just a stunt. I heard Mrs Carnell also refer to a particular person who had waited for a particular form of care. But, of course, that person, as he was informed, ended up in that situation because his specialist changed his category without telling him. The Government cannot take responsibility for those sorts of things. Those are matters which are outside the control of the Government and will be dealt with when the Health Complaints Unit is formed and the person takes up duties in that area soon.
Despite all the pluses, Mrs Carnell still seems to find negatives but cannot quantify them and cannot provide the dollars to fix them. This is the cheapest campaign that has been run against any health system in Australia. It has been run by the cheapest political group that I have ever come in contact with. I think you only have to witness the collaboration between these people opposite and their Liberal counterparts in Victoria in relation to access to police files to demonstrate where they are really coming from. I am out of it, and I will not have to withstand the constant whining. I know that Mr Connolly will withstand it well, but it seems that it is going to continue. I know that the community are just about sick of it.
People in the community who need services urgently get them, and they get quality services. Like every other community throughout the country, when it comes to elective surgery, the ACT has waiting lists. Whether we like it or not, waiting lists are used as an efficient measure for running a hospital system. Doctors require waiting lists so that they can plan their yearly activities. Hospitals require waiting lists so that they can plan their yearly activities. So waiting lists will always be there. That is the way that hospital systems work throughout the world.
Madam Speaker, I merely call on the community - calling on the Liberals would be a waste of time - to keep their eyes open and to take no notice of what the Liberals are saying. What they are about is attacking the public system and any Labor politician associated with it. They are not concerned about the level of care; they never have been.
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