Page 783 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 2010
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tough work, physically and emotionally, and to hear criticism through the media of units which one is associated with must cause distress to and affect the morale of the workplace. When concerns arise, they should be raised; but it should be done in a manner that avoids sensationalism and they should go through the appropriate review processes.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (4.06): I too am very pleased to have this opportunity to discuss the achievements of the ACT public health system under Labor—the incredibly positive achievements that have been delivered by the Labor Party in government.
It is relevant, of course, to provide some context, to look at the system that we inherited when we came to government in 2001. It is most generous of Mr Hanson to give us an opportunity today to do precisely that—to reflect on the decisions and philosophy that underpinned the delivery of healthcare, most particularly through the public hospital system, under the previous government. I think Mr Smyth is the sole survivor here from within the Liberal Party who was here at the time, and he was part of the cabinet that took the decisions to slash and burn the infrastructure and healthcare within the ACT.
In any discussion around health, healthcare delivery in the ACT and the state of health in the ACT, you would need to go back and look at some of the decisions that the previous government took. It is remarkable and quite stunning to look at some of the actions that were undertaken and delivered. When the Liberal Party came to government in 1995, they inherited 780 public hospital beds from the Follett government. When they left, they left the public hospital system with 670 beds—rounded, I think that was—a total reduction of 114 beds in two terms of government.
You do need, in any discussion around health, healthcare delivery and the Canberra Hospital, to understand that when the Liberal Party last took government they inherited 780 public hospital beds. When they left government, after two terms, they left 670 beds. In fact, they took out of the public system a total of 114 beds. That was the starting point for this government: a public health system that had been denuded of beds. It is just mind blowing, in the context of the changing demographics, the incremental increase in demand—an insatiable demand for healthcare in an ageing population. We had the most rapidly ageing population in Australia, and what did the previous government do in the face of that?
The health situation that we faced going forward was described by the Minister for Health as a health tsunami—a health tsunami which has led this government to take the bold decisions that it has taken to invest $1 billion in public health infrastructure over the decade to meet that emerging need for healthcare within this town. And we started from a position of minus 114 beds, courtesy of the Liberal Party, courtesy of Brendan Smyth and his cabinet.
We have heard some comparisons being made today—but no comparisons about throughput; no comparisons, of course, of the level of activity and the per unit cost of
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