Page 4396 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010
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The government also followed what can only be described as a very poor consultation process, unless leaking documents to the Canberra Times is the new way that consultation is done in this community. Essentially, what happened was that right at the end of the process when the government had clearly made up its mind there was a short period of consultation—six weeks. I think it was extended because of the outrage. It was really a PR exercise. When I attended a number of the forums that were conducted it was not about a balanced view of presenting the various options that were available. It was simply a PR exercise in pushing through a decision that had already been made by the government.
With regard to alienating the community, I think that if anyone went to any of the forums that were conducted by a number of groups it was quite clear that the government, particularly through their proposal to include Clare Holland House in the deal, had alienated the community. In fact, they even alienated the Greens on that matter. They alienated colleagues of theirs like the people that would normally support the government. They alienated the Australian Nursing Federation and the Health Care Consumers Association. The Palliative Care Society were alienated, as were staff at Calvary hospital and Clare Holland House. This was not a successful exercise in that regard. It was very clumsy and caused significant aggravation.
The negotiations were botched. The negotiations went on for over 18 months and they failed. When we look at some of the words that are coming out from both sides it seems that there is an ongoing problem. The Labor Party, we know, is split. We know that some members were for it and some were against it. We saw Mr Hargreaves coming out against the proposal and we saw Wayne Berry, a former leader and health minister—I cannot remember the exact quote—say something to the effect of “let Calvary wither and die”. That was a remarkable statement from a Labor luminary and ex-leader of the party.
We very nearly lost $77 million of money. It is undeniable that if Katy Gallagher had got the deal through the way she originally wanted to and in those time frames we would have spent $77 million of taxpayers’ money unnecessarily. This has distracted ACT Health, Treasury and the Assembly. I know that we have talked about this on many occasions. Countless hours have been spent on this deal. If you look at Health’s result and at the way Health is performing, you would have to suggest that the minister is distracted.
We have spoken about elective surgery results being the worst in the nation. In this town we have looked at what is happening in emergency departments. We have looked at the GP crisis that exists. We have looked at issues like the obstetrics case, the handling of that case by the minister—I should say “mishandling”—and her attack on doctors. Basically, she refused to accept that there was a problem because she did not take the time to look into the problem. She did not know what was going on and she should have.
Ultimately, the government got it wrong. The proof is that we are back to square one. We have now got options to consider, which I actually welcome. I think that is a far better process. It is the way that we should have dealt with this. Prior to the last
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