Page 1632 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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Mr Hanson: Really?
Mr Stanhope: Absolutely. Get used to that reality. That’s your seat, mate—
Mr Hanson: You wait till you’re sitting over here. You’ll last five minutes. Your ego couldn’t survive it.
Mr Stanhope: That’s your seat for as long as you’re a member of the Assembly, Jeremy.
Mr Hanson: Mine’s over there—health minister.
MS GALLAGHER: I will just take a breath.
MR SPEAKER: Sorry, Ms Gallagher, but it is your team that is also making the racket, so I do not quite know where to go.
MS GALLAGHER: I am aware there is a bit of cross-chamber discussion—
Mr Stanhope: I beg your pardon, Mr Speaker. I am just bemused by Mr Hanson’s claim just now that he intends to be sitting here as Minister for Health in five months time. I just find it rather remarkable.
Mr Hanson: No, 2012, I said. Is that when you’re resigning?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Gallagher has the floor.
Mr Hanson: I said, “When you’re no longer sitting over there, I’ll be Minister for Health.” I thought it was 2012. In five months you’re going?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, that is enough, thank you. Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: I must say, the government did have some hope when Mr Hanson replaced Mrs Burke. We thought maybe the standard of the opposition health spokesperson might just lift a little bit, but as the weeks go past, that hope, that desire that we had to see a little bit of quality debate being brought into the opposition’s capacity around health, is just sinking so fast. Your speech, Mr Hanson, I have to say, showed a complete lack of understanding of your portfolio responsibilities. You have no understanding of the health system, how it works and what the government has responsibility for. The priority for the ACT government has, and presumably always will, rest with the provision of high quality public health services. That is the responsibility of the ACT government. It always has been and it always will be.
A third of the ACT budget goes to ensuring access to high quality public health services to the community. Now we are dealing here with an issue around access to private health care. That is the issue that is affecting the community, and I think probably the biggest issue facing the health system across the territory is access to
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