Page 4541 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 6 December 1994
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Madam Speaker, I know that what members opposite find the hardest of all to stomach is the fact that our budget has been in balance and that it has not relied on borrowings. As we have heard from Mrs Carnell, she is happy to go out and borrow - she has no problems there; she has the Bankcard mentality - in order to fund her business tax breaks. We have been extremely responsible in our use of borrowings. The fact that we have a AAA credit rating says volumes for the financial management of this Territory. Of course, that is a fact that our Opposition does not want to acknowledge, but they ought to. They ought to join with me in saying that that AAA credit rating is the kind of reputation that the Territory ought to aspire to and ought to maintain.
Melba Health Centre
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister for Health, Mr Connolly. I understand that an audit of financial arrangements at the Melba Health Centre is currently being undertaken. I am also aware of speculation that the Melba Health Centre may not exist as a health centre for much longer and that some members of the existing staff are expecting to be relocated to the Gungahlin Health Centre once it is established. Will the Minister confirm that the ACT Government has no plans to close the Melba Health Centre and relocate existing staff to the Gungahlin Health Centre once it is established?
MR CONNOLLY: I certainly have no plans to close or relocate the Melba Health Centre. We did move some doctors from Melba to Belconnen because we had a situation where there were more doctors at Melba than there were at Belconnen. Belconnen is far more central, it is served well by public transport and it is obviously the better place to be. I have said that; unlike the nonsensical rhetoric from the Liberals who, from time to time, seem to suggest that, unless you have government doctors, you do not have medicine in a community. It seems to be the only Liberal Party division in Australia that demands 100 per cent socialised medicine. The bulk of general practitioner services in Canberra are provided by private GPs, the bulk of whom now bulkbill. The great Medicare reforms over the last decade have brought access to GP services within the range of all, because, through bulkbilling, you can see a GP. I have indicated that, if GPs want to run a bulkbilling practice and rent space in our health centres, we are happy to look at that, because it allows us to focus health centre effort on other areas.
I have asked the Health Advisory Council to look, in the long run, at the future of community health centres, with a view, in particular, to our providing in the health centres those other health profession services which you cannot easily access.
Opposition members interjected.
MR CONNOLLY: There is a bit of chatter over there, but that is to be expected. I am referring to services which you cannot easily access with a Medicare card - podiatry services and the like. The future of community health centres is somewhat fluid, as I have asked the Health Advisory Council to look at the long-term future of the health centres. Certainly, there are no plans to close Melba.
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