Page 627 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the community about whether complaints were actually made. And that is a most serious thing to have occurred.
I am not here saying that it has occurred intentionally. But, if you draw the lines together, if you look at the dates and the times and you see what has happened, there has been a most serious breakdown in what has occurred at the obstetrics department in the Canberra Hospital.
We know that there have been problems there before, because the minister has told us. She said that there has been a war going on for 10 years and that this has been a most serious problem. So any sort of issue that was raised in that area should have put the red flag up and the minister should have known that there was a likelihood that these complaints should be taken seriously.
It is no wonder that people are scared to make complaints—if they are so easily discounted or covered up. I spoke with someone who is a victim of the complaints system and their words were that you have to have rocks in your heads to complain, because you get crucified. Funnily enough, that person does not want to go on the record, because of what they have been through, which was a most appalling set of circumstances.
Ms Gallagher is saying that people are prepared to throw stones and raise allegations but no-one is prepared to go on camera and nobody is prepared to outline their concerns. But they did outline their concerns. They did so in the proper manner to the management of the Canberra Hospital, and they were either ignored or they were covered up. And when they were forced to go to the media, through the chairman of the royal college of obstetricians, what was the response? The response was to be vilified, to be attacked and to have their claims discounted and ignored.
There is a real problem here. The college has done the right thing in representing the obstetricians. I know that there has been some flak towards Dr Foote, but if he was a union representative I think the minister would be less critical. But what he is doing in effect is providing a voice, providing representation for his constituents, for his members, the obstetricians.
Ms Gallagher: Well, for some of those members, Jeremy, against other members of his constituency.
MR HANSON: As you would find in a union.
Ms Gallagher: You don’t usually find unions fighting each other.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR HANSON: The obstetricians who have spoken to me directly—
Ms Gallagher: You don’t—representing a member against another member.
Opposition members interjecting—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video