Page 3056 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
She said that she was doing that and that Simon Corbell was doing that before her. She has been saying now that this government for over five years have been addressing the long waits, and that is why they have not got to the median wait list. But when you actually look at the long waits, on the last statistics I saw, 15 per cent of patients had been waiting over a year, which is five times the national average. So it is pretty difficult to believe Katy Gallagher when she says, “Oh, we’re focusing on the long waits; that’s the problem; that’s what we are doing at the moment,” when she has been saying the same thing for four and five years, and the Auditor-General is saying that it is her strategies that have been inadequate to meet demand.
We saw some other things in the budget, or should I say we did not see some things in the budget. One was the secure adult mental health facility. The reality is that that was the promise. I will read to you what ACT Labor said in the lead-up to the ACT election:
A new secure adult mental health facility ($17.403 million). This funding will provide for the running of a secure mental health facility from mid-2011—
it was going to be open right now—
to meet the needs of forensic and non-forensic consumers of mental health services who require additional safeguards to ensure their safety and that of the community during the period of inpatient care.
They are now saying that the cost of that has blown out, I think, to about $30 million. And I think a really good point to take away from this is that the government will often say to the opposition, “Your costings are not right.” They criticise us for our costings.
Let us be very clear here that the government went to the last election with a promise. They said that this was going to cost $17 million and they have blown it. They promised one thing and they failed to deliver. This was meant to be open now, and it was meant to cost $17 million. It is still not open. It has been taken out of the budget. There is now no appropriation for that very important facility. They are now talking about a cost that is almost double. Just remember, when the government, in a year’s time, are saying, “The opposition’s policies don’t stack up in terms of the amount of money behind them,” how badly Katy Gallagher got it wrong on this one, when she wants to be so holier-than-thou come election costing time.
We could also look at the numerous rollovers that have occurred—not just projects that have been cancelled, but the cost blow-outs and delays—across a range of projects in Health totalling $63.1 million. This is not unique. Last year that figure was $50 million, and the year before it was $57 million. Some of the facilities which are either being delayed or which have been delayed—and we have had cost blow-outs in—include the integrated capital region cancer centre, the enhanced community health centre at Belconnen, the adult health in-patient facility, the women’s and children’s hospital, the new Gungahlin health centre, the refurbishment of the existing health centre at Tuggeranong and so on.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video