Page 1524 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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doctors consider necessary. This is not cosmetic activity. Whilst delays can occur for more than 24 hours, a median of 61 days, two months, is unacceptable.
We have had mention of emergency departments. The waiting times are also far too high in emergency departments. According to the report, only half of the patients received timely treatment in ACT emergency departments, the worst performance in the country. Again, Mr Speaker, I would guarantee that every member of this place has had stories raised with them of people who have been distressed by personal experiences, especially those with children who have had encounters with the hospital. I am not being critical of the people that work there. As Mrs Burke’s motion mentions, these people are doing their best. But you only have to talk to them and they will quietly tell you about the pressure they are under and the difficulties they are facing. If you talk to those who are older in the nursing profession, the same thing applies. They just want out of the place. They do not like the morale, they do not like the atmosphere, and they are under too much pressure. Those are things that we are asking this government to address. Do not simply think that a cheque book will solve every problem. Let’s understand from the people in the front line what is needed. Instead of just listening to the thousand or so bureaucrats employed in health, let’s talk to the people who are administering health care. Let’s talk to the people who have experienced—
At 6.00 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted and the resumption of the debate was made an order of the day for the next sitting. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly was put.
Adjournment
World Environment Day
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (6.00): This being the week that had World Environment Day in it—yesterday, though it was somewhat eclipsed in this place by the presenting of a certain document, which was presented on lots of trees, no doubt—I thought that I would draw attention to a couple of events that have happened in this place this week.
On Monday, I hope you were all invited to a World Environment Day celebration that was organised by young people under the imprimatur of ACT OtherWISE. Mr Gentleman came along, and I was very glad to see him, and a number of members of staff either walked through or dropped by. I found it a very inspiring event, not just because it was so well organised but also because of the things that some of the young people were doing.
ACT OtherWISE is not really an organisation; it began with a couple of workshops that were organised by Julia Collin and a young man called Cameron. At those workshops, young people who attended learned ways in which they could reduce their environmental footprint; a number of them went away to set up projects. These projects include a sustainable music group, which plans to run a musical event on a sustainable theme—an event that is both carbon neutral and waste free. They have applied for funding; they are waiting to hear whether they got it or not. A young woman called Elspeth Blunt came down from Bathurst to do the workshop; she has gone back to Bathurst and set up an environmental network at her university. They
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