Page 564 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
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Only yesterday in this place, Mr Doszpot stood and spoke to the report of the health committee’s inquiry regarding general practitioners. Anyone who was listening would have thought that effective healthcare provision would be uppermost in the minds of those opposite. However, it is not long ago that certain members of this Assembly, I am sure, went to bed delighted that the negotiations had been foiled. The government’s desire to see a significant capital investment in health care in the north of Canberra was stymied. No doubt the success of their oppositional tactics would have been foremost in their minds—opposition for opposition’s sake.
The best interests of Canberrans—all Canberrans—would have been nothing more than an after-thought, I suspect—business as usual for those opposite. Some seem decidedly happy that the government has been prevented from delivering real health benefits to Canberra, gloating about the collapse of the negotiations, not concerned about the difficulties that will face the ACT budget as a result of this decision.
This is not about us; this is about the people of Canberra. It is about the future of our health care in the north of Canberra and I imagine this debacle that we have recently seen over this matter is why our profession is often viewed with a degree of suspicion. And I find this situation deeply regretful. This is why the opposition are patently unfit to govern and why they will remain firmly entrenched in their seats opposite. To be in government, you need the courage to take the hard decisions and to work for the welfare of all Canberrans, not to pander to one section of the community or to put one’s political ambitions above the interests of that community. The best efforts of Ms Gallagher, and indeed this government, were stymied by the continual negativity of the debate by those opposite and their constant undermining behaviour.
I understand how those opposite have claimed to have at heart the best interests of the community who would be directly affected by the proposed changes. And I know from my work in the community that the people in my electorate were looking forward to the government’s plans for health care. However, I see no evidence of that concern for the community from those opposite.
Yesterday health was indeed the subject of many questions during question time. However, it did not seem to be because the opposition care about the effective provision of health care. No, they only care about how many political points they believe they can score on any given day rather than their constituents. In this instance, the interests of 350,000 Canberrans have been neglected.
What we, as a responsible government, have been trying to achieve in these negotiations is an arrangement that would literally lay the foundations for a significant government capital investment on the Calvary campus and an integrated health service that is sustainable in the face of increasing budget and workforce pressures and never-before-seen changes in our demographics over the next 20 years, requiring significant boost to the capacity of our health services. We all know what is facing us with the ageing of our population in the ACT.
This investment of substantial funds in the hospital site would have been implemented in a sustainable way that would have had the least impact on the ACT’s budget. This
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