Page 3329 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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MS GALLAGHER: Mr Speaker, Mr Seselja started by saying that we have one of the worst health systems in the country, and I reject that completely. I think it is negligent of Mr Seselja to stand up in this place and say that we have one of the worst health systems in the country.
Mr Hanson: Which is worse?
MS GALLAGHER: I think that on any rational analysis—
Mr Hanson: Whose is worse, Katy?
MS GALLAGHER: of all of the performance indicators used to measure the health of a health system, you will see that that statement is incorrect.
Mr Hanson: Whose system is worse?
Mr Smyth: So which one is worse?
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Speaker, this motion is all about politics.
Mr Smyth: Which one is worse?
MS GALLAGHER: It is the—
MR SPEAKER: Ms Gallagher, one moment. Please stop the clocks, Clerk. Members, Mr Seselja was essentially heard in silence, except for the cheering from his own benches. I expect Ms Gallagher to be able to mount her defence in the same context. Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. This motion is all about politics. It is all about the Liberals’ quest to continue to seek to damage my reputation. That is open to them as politicians in this place, but it should be seen in that light. This is not about the performance of the health system. In respect of the issues of the obstetrics unit and Calvary, again, on my analysis the government has responded fairly to both of those situations and I can go through the detail around them.
Mr Seselja talks about Calvary and how we were going to throw away $77 million for no benefit at all. I stand by the government’s decision to negotiate around the future of Calvary. It is a long and complex discussion to have. I think it is an unusual situation where 30 per cent of a public health system is managed by a third-party provider.
These negotiations started with the intention of the public system being managed by the public provider. The government had formed the view over a number of years that having a disjointed, un-networked, two-public-hospital town, with one of those public hospitals managed by another organisation, was not in the long-term best interests of this community. I stand by the decision to look at alternative ways of managing the health system. We did seek to buy the hospital and operate it. That was the original
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