Page 1296 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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in other jurisdictions, we are investing to ensure that we achieve the national average in terms of beds per population. That is what we are striving for.
In the context of funding those extra 126 beds in this reporting year, the subacute and new beds such as the MAPU have not been taken into account. This has to be seen in the context of the 110 beds that were removed by the previous government. We were in a situation where we had 784 beds—
Mrs Burke: Six years and you still blame the Liberal government.
MS GALLAGHER: We had more hospital beds—
Mrs Burke: Poppycock!
MS GALLAGHER: It is not poppycock, Mrs Burke. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is a reputable organisation. It is part of their call. It is not poppycock.
Mrs Burke: It is what is coming out of your mouth.
MS GALLAGHER: These figures come from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Barr, Mr Seselja and Mrs Burke, cease interjecting.
MS GALLAGHER: Let us take it back to basics. Who was in charge in 1996, and how many beds did we have? It was the Carnell government and there were 784 beds. That was published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare at that time. Then we see those beds decline year after year after year until, in 2001-02, we reached the all-time low of 670 beds. That was a direct decision of the opposition when it was in government to withdraw beds from the system.
Mrs Burke interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: There is no poppycock about it. These are documented facts. In fact, if you go back through the Hansard prior to the Liberal government coming to power, in 1995 Kate Carnell promised that they would ensure that by the end of the decade Canberra would have 1,000 public hospital beds under a Liberal government. That was going to be quite an achievement when they had got down to 670. There were 110 fewer beds when they left power than when they came in. This is shown in the data.
Today the data shows that our investment in beds is paying off. There will be more beds reflected in the AIHW report of next year, and those beds are required in order for us to deal—
Members interjecting—
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