Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 1196 ..

who need considerable personal care. Of the 557 people who live in nursing homes in the ACT, 86 live in Upper Jindalee, 40 in Lower Jindalee, which Mr Connolly sold - he flogged the beds last year, but forgot to tell anybody, including the residents, the staff or the carers - and 20 at Calvary, which also has been put up for grabs. The remainder live in homes managed by the non-government sector.

The fact is that Mr Connolly did not have a debate about the 40 beds at Lower Jindalee. He put those 40 bed approvals for Lower Jindalee back into the pot to be tendered out to the non-government sector last year. The deal was done. They were gone. Kaput; no more. They were reallocated by the Federal Government last year to Page. They simply do not exist as accredited or approved beds any more, and Mr Connolly did it. He did it without telling the residents. He did it without telling the staff. He just did it and then kept it secret. How in heaven's name can we allow this hypocrisy? You stand there and say, “You cannot possibly sell Upper Jindalee Nursing Home as a going concern with a condition of the tender that those beds stay as nursing home beds”. They are approved and funded by the Commonwealth, as we know. Somehow those opposite think that it is not all right to sell those beds, after informing all the people involved, after our party policy made quite clear our views on who should run nursing homes and who was not so good at running nursing homes. They can say that this is not all right after Mr Connolly flogged 40 nursing home beds, public sector nursing home beds, and did not tell a soul, including the residents and the nurses. I wonder whether that is all right. We do not think it is. We think that is just straight out-and-out hypocrisy.

We believe strongly that we have been totally up front about this. Certainly, we did say in the election campaign that we would look at two new nursing homes, not built by government - - -

Ms Follett: “Build”, I think you said.

MRS CARNELL: No, not build two new nursing homes. We said that we thought that two new nursing homes should be built, one at Belconnen - that is going ahead at Page - and one at Tuggeranong. After we consulted with a number of the people involved it was determined that it would be very disruptive for the residents at Upper Jindalee to be moved. It was determined that it was substantially better to leave Upper Jindalee where it is, in the interests of the current residents and, we thought, in the interests of the current staff as well, because we believed that that was an appropriate place and much easier on the residents. That was the advice that I was given and that was the advice that I took, and I am very pleased with that advice.

Instead of doing what Mr Connolly was going to do, and that is flog the lot, sell it off for housing - he just said that that was what he was going to do - and relocate those 86 on-the-whole elderly residents to a new place out at Tuggeranong, we decided to leave those 86 people where they had been for a long period and put out a tender for the sale of Jindalee as a going concern. Part of those requirements is that the current residents are guaranteed a bed in the new facility and that it is an ongoing nursing home facility. Let us be fair; it cannot be anything else unless this Assembly approves that it be something else. They cannot change the plan to make it housing unless this Assembly approves that. The fact is that they cannot go and flog the site, put houses on it and move out to Tuggeranong unless we approve that. That is up to you.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .