Page 3961 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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Mr Hanson: Katy, the Liberals didn’t try to buy the hospital.
MS GALLAGHER: If you let me have a moment, Mr Hanson, this is the way capital injections have been made into Calvary since self-government. Capital injections have hit the bottom line, not just with Labor governments but with Liberal governments. It has been a challenge for both governments.
To support the argument being put by the Liberal Party, you would also assume that the Auditor-General, who signs off on our accounts every year and on our balance sheet, has also been wrong since self-government. Is that what you are arguing, Mr Seselja, that the Auditor-General has got this all wrong as well? That is the argument that you put here tonight. That is the argument. You are arguing that advice to government has been wrong. You are accusing the Auditor-General—
Mr Hanson: Ha, ha!
MS GALLAGHER: She signs off on our accounts every year, on ACT Health accounts every year. You are accusing her of being wrong and you have been unable to support that element of the argument.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Hanson, Ms Gallagher has the floor. Please hear her in silence.
MS GALLAGHER: That is the argument that the Liberal Party have given us tonight. It is completely without substantiation, in law or in fact. Indeed, the fact is that they are all patting themselves on the back, saying, “We were right the whole time.” They were right in the sense that they refused to engage and just decided they would oppose this for opposition sake, which is what we see on every issue that comes before them, particularly any difficult issue where there is not unanimity of opinion across the community. Governments cannot ignore difficult issues just because not everybody agrees with them.
We have the position here where it was not about injecting $10 million or $5 million into Calvary, as has occurred since self-government. If you go back and look at the injections going into Calvary since self-government, they have been tinkering at the edges, by all governments, patching up here, giving little bits there. The reason they have done that is that it was very difficult to invest in the hospital when we were unable to capitalise that injection. You can go back and have a look at all the previous budgets.
We were faced with the situation where we had to essentially rebuild the hospital. It is not going to be a little tinkering. It is going to be rebuilding and doubling the size of that hospital. It was going to be in the order of $200 million-plus. This presented the government with enormous challenges.
If you listen to Mrs Dunne, it is like this government has been pursuing Little Company of Mary, squeezing them, not funding things, which is the opposite of reality. Every year we fund them, every year they go over budget, every year we fund
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