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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 11 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3200 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Stanhope made the point that it is inappropriate for us to call on the government to do something. That is what we are here for. We are the watchdogs. We are the parties that keep the government on their toes. Given the inactivity of the government, it is more than appropriate for us to say, "Get on with the job."

The trial established by the previous government included surgery. In the absence of a government announcement about what was happening and the timeframes, I checked with the previous health minister, and he said that in his view, on the information he had been given, it was a very successful trial. It achieved everything we had hoped to achieve, perhaps even more.

The motion calls on the ACT government-not directs, not urges-to get on with doing the job, a job the part-time Health Minister seems to be loath to do. It is about focusing on the need of Canberrans. The next step is to do something positive to establish a scheme for nurse practitioners.

I have some concerns with the motion as it reads, but Ms Dundas allayed those fears in what she said. The motion contains the words "a program similar in scope to the program operating in NSW". I would like to see a program best suited to the ACT and not just lift the New South Wales model.

Ms Dundas said she would like something operating quickly. I have no difficulty with that. She suggested we use the New South Wales model until we develop our own, which hopefully would be a much better model. I do not have a problem with that as a step in the right direction, but as long as it is recognised that the Liberal Party are saying that we need to develop a model for the nurse practitioner that suits the needs of the ACT community. We are a very different community to New South Wales.

The aim of the program we put in place was to improve medical outcomes for Canberrans. The record of the government over the last 12 months seems to indicate that they do not care about the outcomes. We have to ensure that the money we spend and the programs we put in place are not wasted but are effective so that we do not see a reduction in outpatient services or a blow-out in waiting lists but more outcomes for Canberrans. One way to achieve that is to have a nurse practitioner program in place. We believe that will deliver better medical outcomes.

Paragraph (2) of the motion reads:

demonstrate that the ACT community respects the qualifications and skills of our nurses.

I heartily support that as somebody who spent two months in the Woden Valley hospital, I was cared for very well by the doctors, but the majority of my care was provided day in and day out, night in and night out, by the nurses. I have nothing but the utmost respect for our nurses. Anything we can do to acknowledge their skills and their ability and show that we as a community respect what they do we should be doing.

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