Page 583 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I think it is ironic that we actually have a member here today claiming her interest in her electorate in this way. It is just the standard performance from Ms Porter. She will be able to put out a press release saying, “I stood up for Calvary hospital and health services; look at the motion I moved.” The question the people of the ACT and the people of Ginninderra should be asking Ms Porter is this: why did she wait until this proposal fell over before she did anything? If she was really interested in the subject, she should have been questioning the minister in caucus long before this became a public issue.
She should have been insisting that the minister put this on record before the last election. She should have been going out and saying to the people in her electorate: “Look, we have got real concerns about this. We want to discuss this issue. What do you think? When you go to the ballot box in October 2008 think about the future of Calvary hospital.” Did Ms Porter do that? No, she did not, because it was a secret deal. She has been complicit with her minister. When she said, “All our plans are on the table,” we now know that they were not. Ms Porter has to answer to her constituency as to why she did nothing to bring this to light before the last election.
She is acting now in the interests of the people of Ginninderra, so she says in her opening remarks. This is just another sham display from Ms Porter. But it is also ironic to consider that in this motion that Ms Porter is bringing forward we are talking about the future of Calvary Public Hospital. The next order of business is Mr Hanson proposing an inquiry into the operation of the public hospital that the ACT government owns and operates.
It is quite ironic that we have a minister who has to come in here when the next motion is debated and justify the complaints of a toxic work culture at the hospital that she manages at the same time as she is proposing to take over another hospital. Does she want to infect Calvary hospital with that same apparent toxic work culture?
Ms Gallagher: Oh, right.
MRS DUNNE: If that is what Ms Porter wants for the people of Ginninderra, she needs to justify that.
Ms Gallagher: Keep going, Mrs Dunne. Keep going. Staff at TCH will be very keen to hear that.
MRS DUNNE: The complaints that have been aired in the public arena over the last 10 days or so and the complaints that have come to the opposition, the problems that we have with long waiting lists and delayed surgery at the Canberra Hospital—
Ms Gallagher: It doesn’t happen at Calvary? No complaints at Calvary?
MRS DUNNE: will be replicated if this government takes over Calvary hospital.
Ms Gallagher: You are a disgrace. You are outrageous. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video