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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 272 ..

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Affairs and Minister for Women) (5.43): I will be brief, Mr Speaker. The fundamental point that the Liberal Party are missing in relation to this debate is that they lost the election. The Liberals went to the election promising an additional $2.7 million for the Canberra Hospital, with some fluffy weasel words about what it would be used for. I think they described it as being in the event that perhaps there was some cost pressure, which really meant a budget overrun. That was the only promise that the Liberals made in relation to the hospital.

Mr Humphries: Oncology.

MR STANHOPE: It is interesting that you raise that, Mr Humphries. You promised $2.7 million for cost pressures. We promised $6 million a year, plus we said that we would pick up the $2.7 million that you had indicated you were prepared to provide for cost pressures.

Mr Humphries: For two years only.

MR STANHOPE: That is right, for two years only, and we said that. We said it in our costing document. We said it in the election campaign. We stood up and said what we would do, as Ms Tucker has just said. We said to the people of Canberra in the election campaign that we would give the Canberra Hospital $8.7 million this year, $8.7 million next year, $6 million the year after and $6 million the year after.

Mr Humphries: So it is a cut.

MR STANHOPE: It is a promise. The party that lost the election is now upbraiding the government because it is not prepared to break an election promise. That is what they are saying now. They are saying, "Are you not going to break that promise that you made in the campaign?" We are not going to break the promises that led the people of Canberra to prefer us dramatically over this other mob, this incompetent mob, the mob whom the people of Canberra have now voted on, have given a tick on. The report card is in. You are hopeless. You have failed. You are incompetent. That is what the people of Canberra think about you. Yet you come in here now and upbraid us for having the temerity not to break our election promises.

We are committing to the Canberra Hospital $6 million a year more than you were prepared to do. We are doing that. We are doing it in this bill. There will be $8.7 million of additional funds this year. Out of those funds, we are going to buy a multileaf collimator, a vital piece of equipment for radiation oncology, a piece of equipment which, because of your incompetence and lack of care, you did not provide, which has resulted in eight-week waiting lists for people with cancer. People with cancer are now waiting eight weeks as a result of your incompetence and your lack of care and you upbraid us for providing $2.7 million over and above the $6 million that we initially promised to provide.

That is what we are talking about here. You actually dare to attack and upbraid us because we are making an injection this year and next year for capital equipment. As Ms Tucker said, we are buying this vital equipment for radiation oncology to ensure that

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