Page 5168 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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health care in the ACT. Madam Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to move the amendment to my motion.
Leave granted.
MS BRESNAN: I move:
“(4) requests that the Minister for Health table a report in the Assembly by 10 December 2009 outlining the issues that were raised by the community through the public consultation process, and the ACT Government response to these issues.”.
I acknowledge that LCM has great expertise in the provision of palliative healthcare services, and I think it does have a role to play in the provision of these services in Canberra. LCM can provide well-informed advice to MLAs about decisions regarding palliative care, but it should not exert such power that it is the decision maker. We have to remember that there are other key stakeholders with expertise in palliative care that must also be listened to.
The role of MLAs, be they ministers, members of the crossbench or the opposition, is not just to lead and make decisions on behalf of the ACT people, but also to represent and facilitate what it is the community is calling for. I am quite sure that the public consultation process that was conducted recently on the Calvary-Clare Holland House sale demonstrated that the community wants to have public healthcare facilities under government ownership, and this is what the Greens are seeking to achieve.
I note that the Minister for Health stated in Saturday’s Canberra Times that the government is yet to make its final decision about the exchange of Calvary Public Hospital and Clare Holland House. I would like to think that the government’s consultation period truly was a listening exercise and that the government may have some further negotiations with LCM about the deal. It is for that reason that I have moved the amendment to my motion, which calls on the minister to table the report in the Assembly by 10 December 2009, outlining the concerns that were raised through the public consultation process, including submissions by groups such as the Australian Nursing Federation, the Health Care Consumers Association and the ACT Palliative Care Society. I have also moved that the ACT government provide its response to the concerns that were raised.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.56): I will speak to the motion and the amendment. As members will know, we have just finalised or reached the conclusion of our community consultation process over the proposed ownership and governance arrangements of Calvary Public Hospital and Clare Holland House. I have attended a number of meetings through that six-week period, listening to people, talking with people and, where I can, addressing people’s concerns over elements of the proposal.
The government will not be supporting Ms Bresnan’s motion today. I do not have a problem with paragraph (1). I should say that the government has no problem with
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