Page 46 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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This proposal is not going to go ahead; so it does require the parties to reconvene and continue those discussions. That is something that I will be leading the work on. I know the goodwill that exists around the table and the understanding that LCM has. As opposed to supposed experts in this place who have failed to grasp the issues on the table, LCM understands the difficulties the government faces from a budgetary point of view. Despite the fact that they will be the beneficiaries of continued investment in Calvary Public Hospital, they understand the difficulties faced by the government.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Hanson?
MR HANSON: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, why are you going to continue to waste more of the government’s time and money on considering an option that you have already discounted as crazy?
MS GALLAGHER: When we chose the path of consulting on this proposal we had already considered a number of other options. That is what governments do. Governments get advice on a number of options on the way forward and we have done so over a number of years with Calvary. We will continue to do so. We will not exclude options off the table, despite the fact that the government might not support them. This is how you make decisions. I know Mr Hanson is incapable of making a decision, but this is how you do it. You put all options on the table and then you go through the options and say, “Well, this one isn’t going to work for whatever reason. This one isn’t going to work for whatever reason. However, these options are ones which we will pursue.”
That is how government makes decisions. It does not surprise me that you guys do not understand that. These are difficult decisions. None of the options we are now going to have to consider are the government’s preferred option because the preferred option is over. So none of the options is the best option. Let us just understand that. This Assembly has been complicit with other players in ensuring that the preferred option does not go ahead. Every single member in this place has to take some responsibility for the fact that two-thirds of this place did not support—
Mr Stanhope: The best option.
MS GALLAGHER: The best option of a new public hospital on the north side of Canberra. As hard as it is to say that, that is the reality. The sisters did not get the support that they deserved from this ACT Assembly. All the sisters got from this Assembly were attacks on their reputation.
Schools—league tables
MS HUNTER: My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. Given that you declared in the Assembly in March 2009 that “I, like my state and territory education colleagues, have concerns in relation to the potential for data that is available through the national testing process to be utilised in simplistic league tables”, what action did you take over the last 12 months to prevent the publication of what amounts to basic or simplistic league tables in the Canberra Times on 29 and 30 January this year?
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