Page 209 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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conducted by an independent body, you know what is going to happen. There will be a froth and bubble review that will just simply say what the minister wants it to say.
This is Katy Gallagher’s 10-year war. Remember that? She said there was a 10-war raging in obstetrics. She attacked the doctors. Anyone that made a complaint she attacked, just as the staff who have come to me with their concerns were threatened: “Don’t say anything or you’ll be in trouble.” She attacked the doctors when they made their complaints and that was described by the AMA as a thinly veiled threat.
So I say to members that we need a review, and the minister has commissioned one, but we cannot just let this be a cover-up, just as it was previously attempted by this government. We need to make sure that any review is thorough and covers all those questions that need to be addressed and that the reviewer is independent of this government, independent of this minister, who has a track record of cover-up and deceit when it comes to maternity in this town.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (4.49): The government will not be supporting this motion, and I have an amendment, which I believe has been circulated. If not, it will be circulated.
Mr Hanson: We have got it.
MS GALLAGHER: Right. I will speak to that amendment as I address particularly the incorrect components of Mr Hanson’s address. I begin by saying we have had an election and I have been judged on my performance in the Health portfolio, Mr Hanson. I have been judged and I won that little challenge you set out. I remember sitting at meetings with you in estimates and different committees where you said you looked forward to implementing all of these when you were the Minister for Health, and I draw your attention to the vote in Molonglo, because that is the endorsement of me as the Minister for Health.
Mr Hanson: You’re an arrogant woman.
MS GALLAGHER: No, I am not arrogant at all, Mr Hanson. You were arrogant when you said that you would be the health minister and that you believed that you would take my job, and you have not. And it hurt, and it will be four years more, Mr Hanson, of you sitting there and giving the same speech that you have given for the last four years.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: The speech you gave today was the speech you have given on every health debate pretty much for the last four years—the same lines and the same derisory attacks on the public health system.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: Light on facts, light on understanding of issues, light on dealing with the real challenges in the health system.
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