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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1965 ..

surfaces; gutters are rarely swept; nature strips are no longer mown; road potholes are infrequently patched; government land is sold at prices that cannot be afforded by many of our children. This person went on to say that, instead of issuing so many policies and plans that will never be implemented, Mr Stanhope and his government should employ public servants who do things rather than write papers as the smokescreen for real activity. That was in a letter in the Canberra Times on 26 April this year, Mr Speaker.

It is in the failure of this government to carry out its stated intentions that we see the collapse of its commitment to the local indigenous community, and even Labor Party members have given up on this government to actually do anything useful. For example, Labor’s own Fred Leftwich has now given up on the Chief Minister to get anything done. He is so frustrated that he has decided to leave the Labor Party, saying that the Chief Minister has forgotten and ignored Canberra’s indigenous community, as reported in the Canberra Times.

But let’s turn to some of the specifics in this budget and where it does not deliver. Health is one area. On the face of it, the budget does not look too bad. Spending increases by about 9 per cent, which is a reasonable amount. As I noted a few minutes ago, however, despite the increases in funding, hospital waiting lists are at record levels and waiting targets are not being met.

However, two of the most significant problems in the health area today that need to be tackled are mental health and aged care. In mental health we’ve a couple of useful initiatives but nowhere near the commitment that is required to address the mental health needs of the community. The budget goes nowhere near the commitment that the Canberra Liberals have made in mental health.

If we turn to aged care, we also see a couple of titbits thrown the sector’s way but, again, the government misses the main game. Since Labor was elected, there has not been a single publicly funded aged-care bed built in the ACT. There have been over 250 beds funded by the Commonwealth and, from Tuesday’s budget, there are another 500 beds on the way. There are many groups who are willing to build facilities, and yet nothing has happened.

In 2001, as planning minister, I gave in-principle approval for Calvary Health Care to construct an aged-care facility across the road from its hospital campus. Almost exactly three years later, nothing has happened. No sod has been turned, and Calvary has had to seek a special dispensation from the Commonwealth not to have their beds taken away from them. And it is not about the money. There is plenty of money floating around. It is about management. The Stanhope government has monumentally stuffed Canberra’s planning system. What do we get from it? Delay, delay, delay.

Mental health has been another disaster area for the Stanhope government. A combination of poor leadership and an absence of leadership on the part of ministers has resulted in poor advice coming to the government. Ms MacDonald is now sitting in the Treasurer’s chair. She may actually be there after the next election. The government is out of touch because it has failed to lead, failed to ask the right questions, failed to monitor and failed to take on the job of making it work.

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