Page 1139 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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the policies and failure in planning of this government. I need not remind members here of the shameful episode of the falsification of 12,000 emergency department records.
Now we hear that the Chief Minister is going to slow down health spending, she is going to reduce health spending after the next election. And she needs to do this to pay for Labor’s other priorities. We will build a better culture in our health system and we will make much-needed changes. We will not allow a situation where there is bullying that results in—I think it was 13 doctors finally—13 doctors resigning because of a war in obstetrics. And we still do not have access to the culture survey. I get many nurses coming to me saying, “Wow, you can see the comments that I’ve written and I know that my friends have written.” But still this open and accountable government—that is irony, for the sake of Hansard—will not release it.
We will create a greater emphasis on prevention and care in our community and we will provide better coordination of healthcare, including the involvement of public and private health service providers, community groups and patients. And we will ensure the capacity of our public hospital system is sufficient to meet future demand and that the use of our private hospitals is increased.
Equally important, we should have the best education in Australia, be that in our primary schools, in our secondary schools, PhDs or, importantly, in trade education. And we will build excellence and capacity across all our schools, be they public or independent schools, and will encourage choice for parents across our school system. We will support our teachers and principals with increased autonomy and a broader range of educational outcomes and we will encourage good behaviour. The culture in our schools will be a priority and we will make sure that school parents and communities have a genuine say in their children’s education. And we will put our kids first and our schools first.
In 2013, Madam Speaker, you will recall, the Chief Minster signed a deal with the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, that reduced the amount of federal funding coming into ACT schools by $30 million. Why did she do that? I think we know. It was to protect her from Kevin Rudd, who was coming at her pretty hard. And just like Jon Stanhope was the first to sign up for the dodgy health agreement that fell over, Katy Gallagher knew that she had to support her left faction colleague by getting in there and signing up for the deal. At the same time, the state premiers fought for every single dollar and got millions in extra funding for their schools. I will never sell our children short.
Another key difference is that we are strong supporters of the business sector, in particular small business, and we know that the Labor Party really are the patsies of the unions. And I will unashamedly say that we will always be the friend of hardworking, honest business owners across the city who create the jobs, who create wealth and who drive the economic prosperity of our great city. And let me be clear: we will do everything we can to make Canberra a place where people want to do business. We will remove unnecessary regulation duplication, which is strangling businesses across our city and restricting employment growth.
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