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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2957 ..

What has not been covered in the debate is the issue around the nursing work force: the numbers of nurses, the numbers of therapists and the numbers of health professionals. We look for some explanation of why that situation has persisted. We look for why we have the lowest level of bulk-billing in Australia. We look to understand why we cannot attract GPs to the ACT—and we have to look to their colleagues on the hill. We know where the issue is.

We know that there has been no attempt by the federal government to deal with work force issues. We have seen what has happened. In the last two months the University of Sydney basically abandoned the Faculty of Nursing because of the dereliction of the Liberal Party federally. We know that issues in relation to the lack of training and lack of places for nurses, for therapists and for technicians—indeed, all health work force issues—are issues of responsibility for the federal government. We, as the territory government, have striven mightily to deal with them. Everybody knows that a lack of commitment to primary health care from the federal government and a lack of funding have forced enormous pressure onto the public hospital system.

One of the great pities of this debate is the running down of the public hospitals in the ACT. We have, in the Canberra Hospital and in the Calvary Public Hospital, two of the finest public hospitals in Australia. We are lucky that the people of Canberra understand that. We are lucky that they will not be deceived by the running down of two wonderful hospitals—the Canberra Hospital and the Calvary Public Hospital. They are amongst the greatest hospitals in Australia—there is absolutely no doubt about that.

A point has also been raised by one of the Liberals in relation to aged-care patients. It was suggested that all of a sudden—2½ years ago—a situation described as bedlock occurred. It did not happen before that of course. It never happened under the Liberals! All of a sudden, in October 2001, this new phenomenon occurred. The hospitals had to start dealing with aged-care patients in their hospitals taking beds that might have been better utilised for acute care. It is quite remarkable. It has been known only since October 2001. It did not occur before that; it is just a Labor emanation. It never happened under the Liberals. What a load of codswollop! What a load of garbage! This has been an issue that has confronted hospitals, particularly public hospitals, since the year dot—and you know it. To claim, all of a sudden, that under the Labor Party, under this government, these sorts of things happened is just nonsense. It is just rubbish; it is just garbage. Absolutely nobody will be fooled by that nonsense.

Certainly we face a range of issues with health care. We have touched on some of them and we have cleaned up an awful lot of what we inherited. One of the prices that were paid for the investment we made in disability services, the investment we made in respite care, the investment we made in nurses, was that there was not the same level of investment in elective surgery. We said it at the time—and we say it again. Let us not pretend that the investment in disability services, the investment in nurses, the investment in respite care and the investment in mental health came at the cost of elective surgery. We said it; we were open about it. Of course elective surgery numbers have taken a hit. But we did it deliberately; we did it with our eyes open. We transferred some resources into other areas that had been grossly neglected by the Liberals—namely, disabilities, respite care, mental health and a range of other services that the Liberals refused to fund.

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