Page 192 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Ms Gallagher, Mr Coe, please! Mr Hanson has the floor.
MR HANSON: We have an agenda from the Greens to nationalise, to socialise and compulsorily acquire Calvary hospital. What I do not want to see is the same sort of steps being taken towards any sort of compulsory acquisition of our private hospital system. The challenge obviously is how to make real these outcomes that we are seeking. I do not have the solutions to achieve all these goals here today, but I am confident that the solutions are available.
I have a lot of questions that do need to be answered to inform policy development, but I am confident that over the next couple of years, by working hard and working together with the community, we will get the answers that we need to the questions. The collective knowledge, the intellect, the experience available to do all this work in the ACT is, without doubt, more than adequate. I do sense a willingness to help, and we saw that the other day with the kind words from the AMA and from others. The real enthusiasm out there—
Ms Gallagher: Yes, who were they?
MR HANSON: Well, we saw quotes from Access Economics, I think, and from Bob Wells from the ANU. I can get more; I can give you a list of people who want to contribute to the debate rather than sneer at the debate like the Greens and Labor are doing.
Ms Bresnan: Sneer?
MR HANSON: Well, it is. You are sitting back there putting forward the sorts of comments that are coming rather than engaging constructively. To harness this expertise, I will be running a number of forums over the next couple of years aimed at exploring and discussing all the good ideas in a variety of areas, including preventive health, chronic illness, mental health, health workforce, primary health, allied health and so on. The discussion paper does contain a list of the sorts of questions that I think we need to ask as part of the forums—
Ms Gallagher: Maybe acute health, maybe hospitals?
MR HANSON: Sorry, minister, a contribution? A positive contribution?
Ms Gallagher: No.
MR HANSON: Was there one?
Ms Gallagher: It is unparliamentary to respond to interjections, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Was it? No, I missed it. If she does have something valuable to contribute then I would certainly welcome that, minister. You know I would. No doubt there are many other questions that could be asked, and I welcome those as well.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video