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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1130 ..

Mrs Carnell: We just brought down a budget which actually has an increase in health spending.

MR BERRY: Indeed it has - $15m over last year.

Mrs Carnell: That does not sound like a government that is reducing public hospital spending, does it?

MR BERRY: She says that it does not sound like a government that is reducing the public hospital system. The private hospital system is not there yet. But it is intended to be there so that Mrs Carnell can force people into the private system.

I would ask, Mr Speaker, that you use the same discipline on Mrs Carnell as you seek to use on members of this side, on the matter of interjections. It would be very helpful. Mr Speaker, what we need to determine is the impact of any new beds in the private sector on those public hospitals, as I have said, and on the private hospitals; the projected requirements of different types and categories of beds in the ACT, including the different levels of acute care beds and day care bed requirements, as well as any possible combinations.

A briefing preceded the immediate signing of a contract by Mrs Carnell, which was done to ensure that this Assembly had no say in the matter. I do not think there is any doubt about that. This contract was signed in haste, to prevent this Assembly from having any say in the matter. There was an interest in the matter developing before a sitting period. Mrs Carnell was cunning enough to see that this interest had arisen, and she signed the contracts. The inquiry, absent the signing of contracts, would have been an inquiry into what the private hospital might do to the public and private systems in the ACT. Post the signing of the contracts, it will be an inquiry into what this new hospital will do. It makes no difference, Mr Speaker, because it is to ensure that the community is fully aware of the effects of these sorts of systems on the public and private systems.

Mr Speaker, in the briefing that I was given, it was very clear that HCOA has been given the nod in relation to this hospital. That is a company which owns and operates the Port Macquarie hospital, which has been the subject of much interest and criticism in New South Wales. It would be a matter of some interest to see how that interest and criticism might relate to a future private hospital here in the ACT and, indeed, how that interest and criticism affected the judgment of the issues here in the Territory. It may well be, Mr Speaker, that there are other interests in the private hospital fraternity who will have something to say about the operation of an additional private hospital in the ACT.

I am probably the most experienced health person in this Assembly, as I have been associated with the issue in one way or another since I came into the Assembly at the time of self-government in 1989. Mr Speaker, I have never once had a submission put to me or a representation from the private hospitals in the ACT that they wanted another one. The only time I have ever seen the issue of another private hospital emerge was when Gary Humphries wanted to build one somewhere near the Calvary Hospital, when he was Health Minister for a short time. Thankfully, we sorted that out. The next time was when Mrs Carnell came to office. Old memories linger, and they were not able to look at it except through the eyes of the old Liberal Party.

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