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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 1264 ..

Mr Berry: First accredited under Labor.

MR MOORE: Mr Berry, I have to say to you that we ought to be very proud of our hospital. The report from the Commissioner for Health Complaints shows that 67 written complaints were made last year about what had gone on at the hospital. During that period there were 500,000 or so separations from the hospital. That was the number of people treated at the hospital, including some people treated a second or third time. Of the 500,000 occasions of service, 67 written complaints accounts for something in the order of 0.013 per cent. It is that sort of level but it is still enough for you or a television station or a newspaper to run one case every week, and it creates an impression in the public mind that this is not a good hospital. It is better than a good hospital; it is a great hospital. The clinical school is assisting it to be that, and it is improving. It has been through a long process of improving, and that has happened with a non-partisan approach in this Assembly. It is something that we should all be proud of and something that we should stay with.

Mr Speaker, through all that, the direction of the agenda is set so that we know where we are and where we are going and are not sidetracked by a strike at any given time. We know what our direction is. That is not to say that we should not deal with those things. I am down there dealing with those things one at a time, walking through the wards, talking to nurses, talking to patients. I have been doing those things and I will continue to do them, and I will continue to talk to those workers, so that we get the best possible health system right across the system.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the Speedrail as the preferred proponent for the Canberra-Sydney very high speed train service.

Leave granted.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the announcement of Speedrail as the preferred proponent to provide a very high speed train service from Canberra to Sydney represents perhaps the single most significant step in the development of the national capital since it was founded in 1911. Tuesday, 4 August was a significant day for Canberra and for the Australian Capital Territory because this project means so much to our future. The announcement earlier this month was a milestone in the development of the project and, like all large infrastructure projects, often the most difficult part of the process is getting a start. The VHST project has been before governments for over 10 years and has gone through numerous evaluations. Looking around the audience in the Great Hall in Parliament House, I saw many people that were passionate about the project 10 years ago, and they still have the same amount of enthusiasm today. They have not been

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