Page 1151 - Week 03 - Thursday, 31 March 2011
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Mr Hanson: What are you alleging?
MS GALLAGHER: Well, certainly, the dissenting comments are exactly the points that Mr Hanson went on about at length in the committee hearing. I am just drawing attention to the similarity there between what members are thinking. It is interesting; it is not unexpected that the Liberals would have this sit-on-the-fence approach to perhaps the major issue facing the city in the future. It is not unexpected, but it is a bit disappointing.
Overall, the report supports the work that is underway. It acknowledges the complexity and requires the government to do a few more things which, on the surface, while I am looking at them, we are very happy to do. I thank the members for this contribution, which will now feed in to the overall decision-making process that the government will be undertaking in the next few weeks.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (10.24): I was not going to speak to the report but, given that little outburst from the minister, it is appropriate that I respond. The minister is accusing the Liberal Party of not having a position. I will certainly grant her leave—I am sure my colleagues would, too—to stand up and say what her position is. She has not given this chamber or the public a position. She has not said that it is going to be option D or option E. When I had a briefing the other day with the deputy chief executive and other staff from ACT Health, it was quite clear that a number of options are in play and are still being considered, and that is appropriate.
There is a general consensus that there are two options that should at this stage be discounted—that is the super hospital and the three acute hospitals model. But within ACT Health and the community I think it is broadly acknowledged that there are still three options on the table being considered very seriously by ACT Health.
For the minister to have the audacity to suggest that the Canberra Liberals do not have a position before the government has got a position is quite ironic. When the minister makes a decision and advises the community what she is going to do—bearing in mind that this is about the third or fourth iteration of this—then we will consider that and we will respond in due course.
She also needs to remember that this is a committee. Despite her quite serious allegations that there has been some sort of interference in the committee process, this is a committee report. This is members of the health committee—Mr Doszpot, Ms Porter and Ms Bresnan. It is not the Liberal Party, the Greens and the Labor Party, unless the minister would like to make something a bit clearer about what she has done with Ms Porter’s response. This is quite a remarkable thing for the minister to be alleging.
The committee have reported. They have made a number of recommendations. I agree with some of them; I disagree with others. We will continue to go through the process, remembering that it was a Liberal Party motion, my motion, to establish this committee so that we could have further information to consider this proposal. We have a number of bits of information. We have what the committee have presented
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