Page 1051 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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If the money is in the budget, how is it now that the government is not convinced that it should go ahead at this point in time? Clearly, the reason is that the government does not have good process in regard to capital works. But apparently the real reason, and to quote the Chief Minister, she went on to say, “It will be easier to have more beds go to Calvary and the north side hospital before we focus on working on areas of core services at a tertiary hospital.”
It is a scary state of affairs when a decision on an $800 million project is put on hold because it is easier to do something else. “Easier” leads to more health infrastructure—and you only have to look at the record of this health minister and the previous one in not delivering on health infrastructure. The list is long and sad. We saw the cost blowout of $20 million for the women’s and children’s hospital, which delivered something that had no extra capacity and, in fact, was affecting the way that women were having their children in the ACT. We had complaints from both patients and staff about what a poor place it was to work.
We have seen the cancellation and the delay of the $11 million secure adult mental health facility, also with a cost blowout now approaching something like $30 million. It is an ongoing saga that has been running for something like seven years. We saw the hospital car park, which was $29 million, blow out to $43 million. Of course, then there is the sad saga of the bush healing farm. The Labor Party are the party that triumph and champion and say, “We’re the ones that look out for the Indigenous community.” Yet they are the ones that let the Indigenous community down so many times. We have got the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation facility, and, yet again, it is another victim of this government’s inability to deliver a project on time, on budget and on scope.
The bush healing farm was originally slated for opening about now. It was due to open in the next couple of months, and it is yet to be allocated a start or completion date. It has been plagued by lengthy hold-ups—indeed, since Mr Stanhope was Chief Minister—and also in the planning and approvals process. It is no surprise that the local community is disappointed by this. We see that instead of the bulk of the money for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residential alcohol and other drug rehabilitation facility, the bush healing farm, being spent predominantly in this year, 2012-13, when there should have been $4 million worth of expenditure, it has now been pushed out to $2½ million in 2013-14 and almost $2 million in 2014-15. So much for the government’s ability to deliver on their commitment to this part of our community.
Of course, you have only to recall the independent study conducted by Deloitte Access Economics entitled Evaluating ACT hospital development planning, where they came to the following conclusion:
As with the ill-fated ACT power station proposal, lack of transparency regarding touted benefits, gross failings in analytical rigour, and inadequacy in consultation processes is not a recipe for consistent, sound policy formulation or for economically and socially desirable outcomes.
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