Page 3369 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the hospital, the coronary care unit, after being carted off a couple of times. I have to tell you that that hospital functions absolutely brilliantly. This is firsthand experience which is no more than half an hour old. When it comes to patient care, every one of them—whether they be salaried specialists, VMOs or nurses—are without peer. And so are our community GPs, in my view.
The point is this: who is expressing faith in that particular sector and who is not? Who is trying to meddle in it when they do not have a right to and when in fact it borders on illegality? Not this side of the house, Mr Speaker. What is happening here is that the Minister for Health is using every piece of influence that she has with the federal government, with those practising in the sector, with the planning regimes and within the cabinet to make sure that adequate resources are provided for the most significant issue facing Canberra today—our health system.
What we are seeing is a promise of a costing from across the road. They are saying, “Well, we’ll reveal our costings in the passage of time.” Those people over there are like an episode out of Yes, Minister.
Mrs Burke: It certainly is.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Burke!
MR HARGREAVES: When you have a good look at it over here, you know you have got the A team, the B team and the Zed team. We do not see anything concrete to give us any faith. Earlier, I heard Mr Smyth using the word “trust” regularly. I have to say that I was surprised. I sat myself down because I nearly had a heart attack when I heard that. I thought it was incredible that someone who has not worked out what the word means would use it like that. Mr Speaker, we talk about trust.
Mrs Dunne: Relevance, Mr Speaker.
MR HARGREAVES: This is in health care; this is—
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, members on both sides have raised the issue of trust.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, this is a former shadow health spokesman using the word “trust”. I cannot honestly see how. We can trust those opposite, and particularly Mr Smyth, to take a thousand houses out of the housing portfolio—when he was minister for housing.
Mrs Dunne: Relevance, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Come back to the issue.
MR HARGREAVES: We talk about the trust being now applied to the health policy that they are coming forward with. That is what this motion is all about. That is really what this motion is all about—trying to sell the health policy: their health policy, Mr Smyth’s health policy, the one based on trust.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .