Page 3339 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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The minister also said that she could not launch an investigation into the bullying claims because no-one had made specific allegations. When Mr Hanson moved his motion calling for an inquiry in February—that was on 24 February—the minister proposed to the Greens that a review be conducted internally. The Greens responded, using our balance of power in this place in a responsible manner, by saying that the review needed to be conducted independently and in a sensitive manner.
I agree that the matter would not have been looked into if it had not been brought to the Assembly’s attention by Mr Hanson. However, I also believe that, if we followed Mr Hanson’s proposal, the unit could be a lot worse off now as many of its staff would have been forcibly made to appear before a judicial inquiry. That is no way in which to deal with a workplace conflict and achieve better outcomes for any alleged victims. On the other hand, conducting an internal investigation, as the minister proposed, was unlikely to be the best path forward to uncover all of the information.
The first investigation is now complete, and the clinical outcomes have been cleared. The clinical outcomes for the obstetrics unit at the Canberra Hospital and at Calvary are good, but we need to let the second investigation being conducted through the public interest disclosure run its course. It may well be the case that only a small summary of that review will come to the public, and that is as it should be under the public interest disclosure legislative requirements.
In recent weeks we have heard from the minister through the media that her actions and statements of February this year were based on advice she had received from ACT Health. But there, in fact, is the dilemma. She trusted the advice she was receiving from the department that the complaints were being made about. One could see there was some reason in her trusting the department’s advice because of findings that had previously been made in response to allegations being raised by private obstetricians. In any case, the one thing that the Greens believe is that allegations of bullying and harassment must be taken seriously, treated sensitively and use independent parties to assist in investigating and resolving matters.
Now to address the ministerial code of conduct and the tests it provides: the Greens’ response is that the minister did not breach the code of conduct. If the minister had proceeded with an internal investigation and the truth had been covered up somehow, that would have seriously harmed public confidence in the management of the hospitals. Luckily, this path was not taken; another path was chosen and, therefore, for this reason and those I have stated above, the ACT Greens cannot support this motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health today.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (10.56): The great apologist. Mr Speaker, I have lost confidence in this minister, the community has lost confidence in this minister, patients have lost confidence in this minister, and, increasingly, health professionals that I talk to have lost confidence in this minister.
Let me turn firstly to the issues that are plaguing our health system—issues that Katy Gallagher says do not exist. Elective surgery waiting times in this town are a disaster; they are the worst in the country by a long way. We have a crisis in the number of
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