Page 1359 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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I think the silly comments she made on ABC radio this morning prove that. What she demonstrated is that she simply is not across her portfolio, particularly when she gets out of familiar territory. The Minister for Health said today in question time that the outcome of the report by the AIHW was good for the ACT. What was the reason it was good? It was 400 pages long and in that 400 pages there were only three matters of concern: triage of category 3 and 4 patients in the emergency department and waiting lists.
Of course, at the heart of any hospital system is the triage system when you approach the emergency department and getting on or off an elective surgery waiting list. So to say it is 400 pages and only three bits were wrong is silly at best and disingenuous at the same time. We also highlighted the disparity in the cost of separations with the ACT at the top of the list.
Let us turn to hospital beds. The minister said today that the ACT, under the Stanhope government, would aim to achieve national benchmark for hospital beds on a per capita basis. Why did she say this? She said it because this is another poor indicator for the ACT in the institute’s report. But what does it mean, Mr Speaker? It means that the ACT needs an additional 194 beds. Yes, that is right. That is what the minister committed to today—an additional 194 beds.
What that would do is bring us up to around four beds per thousand of population. We look forward to that commitment being honoured in the budget on Tuesday. We look forward to the costs of 194 beds being in the budget on Tuesday, and we look forward to the minister keeping her commitment. It is great that the minister for education is here, because he is also the minister for sport and recreation. You could not let the night go past without having a comment about his failure to come up with real solutions to address the crisis we face with ovals.
As I have said a number of times here, Andrew Scissorhands has cut off the water to our ovals. They are just going to be allowed to deteriorate. We are doing ground zero—a scorched earth policy—here. There is no water for ovals, but there is no attempt whatsoever to come up with other solutions.
He should have listened to the Chief Minister who said there is plenty of water. He said that it flows out of the end of lower Molonglo. If you bring your truck down we will fill it up for free, and off you go. I think the sporting community is saying, “Well if there is water coming out of lower Molonglo, where is the minister’s initiative?” There is absolutely no initiative from the one trick pony that is the minister for sport and recreation. All he knows how to do is cut; so now we are going to cut off the water to the ovals.
Other solutions may include rotation. Let us face it: he worked for the former minister who was responsible for the maintenance of ovals for almost five years; so it is a problem he should be right across. He should have known. Mr Hargreaves had responsibility for ovals as minister for urban services. That is where responsibility for them used to sit; it was—
Mr Barr: Not for five years, Brendan.
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