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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3455 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Let me go through some of their promises. From health fact sheet No 3, Labor will build at least two after-hours clinical GP centres at Canberra and Calvary Hospitals. There are no clinics, and there are no references to these clinics in the budget. I think Labor has been back-pedalling on these issues for some time.

The next broken promise is from ACT Labor's plan for rebuilding the ACT health service. It refers to a crisis injection by Labor of $6 million to the Canberra Hospital. I quote:

With this additional $6 million, the hospital would be able to employ more nurses and, for example, admit another 1300 in-patients and handle another 2500 patients in Emergency.

From their own admission, the vaunted $6 million has resulted in a mere 300 extra cross-weighted separations-not the 3,800 that were promised.

There is perhaps one promise which the Chief Minister has kept. In an interview in the lead-up to his swearing-in as Chief Minister-when he was Chief Minister elect-he promised there would be no two to three-month hiatus. He said there would be no delay when they got into operation. The Chief Minister is dead right. We have had a 12-month hiatus. I can see that he is doing his best to keep that promise, and I do not believe the hiatus will end.

Going back to Health, in its "Labor believes we can do better"document, it declares that Labor's pre-election view was that "waiting lists for elective surgery are unacceptably long". Mr Speaker, waiting lists are going up and up-and they are still trending upwards from July last year.

In July last year, there were 3,565 people on the waiting list, and there were 3,921 in July this year. So in 12 months it had gone up almost 400. Now-to his defence-they have come down slightly. In September they dropped to 3,802, but they are still well above the 3,565. I think you will find there was a ramp-up of activity. We know that wards were closed at both Calvary and Canberra Hospitals in September-certainly in October. I suspect ours was a city without elective surgery being performed on some days in October this year.

Another broken promise: Labor will provide greater support for people with mental health problems. Again I quote from Labor's health fact sheet No 3. How can this be so, when Calvary Hospital has announced it is cutting its public psychiatric services by 7 per cent?

Mr Speaker, another broken promise: Labor will ensure better and more open management of waiting lists. That is from Labor's 2001 election platform. The waiting lists are certainly not being tabled in this place, so there goes openness. They are certainly not being managed better, because they are growing.

Another broken promise: Labor will increase prevention measures through Healthpact. The promise was $150,000. That is from Labor's election platform. There is no extra money provided in this budget for Healthpact.

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