Page 142 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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(e) apologise to the Canberra community for breaking her 2008 promise of “three new walk-in centres”.
I rise today to talk about the Labor Party’s first election promise of the 2012 election that was made on 12 December last year. I want to make the case that what we are seeing here is a rehash of a broken election promise from 2008. When the election announcement was made, it was made in such a way that it was utterly disingenuous and gave the deliberate impression to the media and to the community that something was happening that was not.
There was a significant omission and the omission was that Katy Gallagher plans to close the current walk-in centre. I also want to know where the money is coming from for this, because that has not been made clear in the election announcement. She needs to point to where the entire funding will come from for this proposal.
The first element of this is that this is a broken election promise from 2008. I refer members to the Labor Party website and the health policy from the Labor Party back in 2008. I refer to page 6 of that election policy statement. What it says is “ACT Labor will establish 3 ‘new walk-in centres’”. It goes on to refer to the first one opening in 2010 to fill the gap in the provision of health services, blah, blah, blah. Let me reiterate: “ACT Labor will establish 3 new ‘walk-in centres’”.
They did not, they have not and they will not. As I will show you later, they do not intend to ever establish three new walk-in centres. What we saw in 2008 was a promise that has not been delivered and will never be delivered by the ACT Labor government. It is a broken promise. It is no different from the broken promise that we saw in relation to the secure adult mental health facility.
The health minister has just arrived. I do not know if you heard me quote from your promise in 2008, health minister, where you said, “ACT Labor will establish 3 new ‘walk-in centres’.” I just reiterate the point that, no, you will not and, no, you have not. Your promise has not been delivered. You have delivered one and you do not even intend in the term of the next government, if you were to be re-elected, to open three.
It is no different from the secure adult mental health facility, which was also promised in this document. It is no different from the misleading statements that you made that all your plans are on the table, while at the same time you had written to the Little Company of Mary asking for a heads of agreement to be signed on 20 August 2008. Before the ACT election, you said that you wanted a heads of agreement signed before the caretaker period. Again, another broken promise, another mislead from this health minister.
Then what occurred was that on 12 December, in announcing all the new candidates, of whom one, as we know, was Ms Gallagher’s health adviser, Ms Gallagher made the commitment that she was going to expand the nurse-led walk-in centres to Belconnen and Tuggeranong. She said that she had worked hard to deliver innovative solutions in health.
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