Page 549 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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I reiterate the Greens’ support for nurse-led walk-in centres. We know they have been very successful overseas, particularly in the UK. It was even clear back in 2011 that the early success of the walk-in centre and the high level of consumer satisfaction showed that this model should be expanded in the ACT. In 2011, my colleague Amanda Bresnan was very supportive of the innovative new centre at Woden. However, she was also quite firm that the centre could achieve more if it were not located at the Canberra Hospital and if the nurses had greater scope of practice, given that they are highly qualified, and should be enabled to use their full qualifications, skills and training.
This is exactly what we are seeing occurring before our eyes here in Canberra—an expansion of the centres and a move away from the hospital. It is clear that both sides of the chamber seem to actually agree that the walk-in centre at the Canberra Hospital needs to move. Labor, Liberals and Greens all agree on something. Perhaps that is another moment today to add to Mr Coe’s earlier moment of bonhomie. Mr Hanson has brought nothing to the real health debate today, rather he has just sought to selectively quote the Chief Minister and try to paint that in a way that does not match the way the discussion played out.
Last time this issue came up I prepared an amendment which called for the health minister to table implementation plans for the forthcoming walk-in centres at Tuggeranong and Belconnen, including consultation with key stakeholders. I am looking forward to the tabling of those documents in the near future. The minister has informed me that the last of the information to make those documents available has just been received and that we should see them tabled during upcoming sitting periods. I think they will be important documents for the Assembly to have a look at and to get a better understanding of the model that has been developed. That is the approach the Greens want to bring to this debate—that is, policy formulated on evidence, programs developed in consultation with key stakeholders and genuine consultation with the community.
That brings me to the approach Mr Hanson has taken today, which has been largely about politics and not so much about the merits or the operating model of the walk-in centre. It really raises questions around truth in campaigning, and I think that has been the essence of Mr Hanson’s motion today.
Earlier today Mr Hanson and I had a good discussion about this, and I appreciated that. It was rather less colourful than the debate this afternoon. It was quite a serious conversation about the merits of both the motion and the way that the issues were discussed at the time. I listened very carefully to the points Mr Hanson made and I really reflected on what he said. I made a few points at the time of the conversation, but what it comes down to is thinking about the way that people seek to conduct political debate. The Liberals have certainly used many Greens’ proposals and quotes against us in the same way over the years with selective quotation or, frankly, what I consider to be straight-out distortion of what they knew our position to be.
I took the opportunity since that earlier discussion to try to get a sense of how to form a final view on this matter today, and I found a couple of gems. There was Zed Seselja, the former Liberal leader, saying in the City News in October 2011, “The Greens even
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