Page 567 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
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just point to a letter from Mr Tom Brennan, the chairman of the Little Company of Mary, to me, dated 7 February. I will read from that. It says:
I attach a statement released by us today.
This announcement is a matter of regret for us and the LCM Sisters. It has nothing to do with political processes and everything to do with Church deliberation.
So, Ms Porter, you seem to be at odds with the main protagonist in this, the person that understands the reasons why it fell over better than you do, I would assume. I suggest you give Mr Brennan a call to correct the Hansard and the record which you have just spoken about.
The sad reality is that the government’s proposal to purchase Calvary and sell Clare Holland House has been an ideologically driven farce that has distracted the minister and, sadly, many ACT Health officials, the staff of the Little Company of Mary and the community from their core jobs. Katy Gallagher is the architect of this fiasco. She needs to stop blaming others, or getting Ms Porter to blame others, and making veiled threats, and she needs to accept responsibility.
The deal has failed because the minister mishandled the process from start to finish. Let me outline why. Prior to the last election, the government and the Little Company of Mary were engaged in secret discussions. This led Katy Gallagher to write to the chairman of the Little Company of Mary in August, outlining a deal in some detail, and requesting that a heads of agreement be signed before the caretaker period. So when Katy Gallagher said, on the eve of the ACT election, “All our plans are on the table”, this was, to put it simply, not true.
Katy Gallagher failed to get a mandate for this proposal from the electorate and is now living with the consequences of that. The deal came to light only in April last year, six months after the election, when details were leaked to the Canberra Times. Many people in the community have asked me why the proposal was not taken to the election. I agree with them that it should have been.
If you do your business in secret and hide your plans from the electorate, you should not expect the support of the community or the Assembly. The consultation the government did conduct was an exercise in advocacy and public relations rather than a genuine attempt at consultation. Ms Gallagher admitted this at a public forum—that no amount of public opposition to the proposal would prevent the government pursuing its agenda.
The Canberra Liberals attempted to establish a proper process of consultation through the Assembly in June 2009, but this was blocked by Labor and the Greens. In October last year, we attempted to refer the proposal to the Auditor-General for an independent review; however, again this was again blocked by Labor and the Greens.
The substance of the deal was also flawed. The proposed deal would not have resulted in improved health services to the ACT. It is vitally important to remember that Calvary is already a public hospital that currently delivers health services to the ACT
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