Page 4034 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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I have asked this minister to provide assurances to the Assembly and to the community that she will resolve this issue or resign. It is a pretty simple thing to ask after so many years that this minister provide assurances that she will fix the issue. She is refusing to do that today. She is going to stand in this place and vote: “No, I will not provide those assurances.” She could have provided those in her amendment. She could have said, “Yes, I will provide those assurances.” This minister is saying today that she refuses to assure this place and she refuses to assure the community that after years of mismanagement, of problems, of this sick culture, she will fix it.
It is quite reasonable, I think, that we expect a minister, given these long-term problems, to come into this place and say, “I’m the minister. Under the Westminster system I am responsible and I will fix this.” I would have thought that after four separate motions, after all the media reporting, after the reports that have been provided by RANZCOG and other external reviews, this minister should have the confidence to be able to say that.
I have lost faith in Katy Gallagher as the health minister. If she is unable to provide assurances that she can fix the problem, if she is refusing to provide those assurances, as she is today, what faith can we and the community have that she is acting proactively, that she is acting ethically and that she is acting reasonably to fix these problems?
Last time these complaints were raised, we know she attacked the doctors. It was so bad that the AMA came out and said there was a witch-hunt by the government against them. We know Katy Gallagher took sides when these issues were raised last time. How do we know she is not doing that again?
I remind the minister and Mr Rattenbury that the staff are raising these concerns. Enough of this, “Oh, this is just politics from the opposition.” Nothing I have said today has not been made as a point by front-line staff. The staff I have spoken to include junior registrars but also senior clinicians. They have a different view about who is to blame and where the root of the problem is. But they are consistent in what they say—that is, the culture is sick and that as a result of the problems in the unit there is a real problem of increased risk to mothers and babies. This minister and Mr Rattenbury are going to again sweep this under the carpet, again refuse to provide the assurances to the community that these problems will be fixed, and again simply try and say this is just politics and the staff are fixing this.
I want you to mark my words today, Madam Speaker, that we will be back in this place on this issue. When you sweep things under the carpet, when you deny, when you cover up and when you just say it is all going to be fixed without taking action or responsibility, just as we were back in 2012 and just as we are back again now, I guarantee, sadly, that we will be back in this place on this issue. Again we will see denials and assurances that the staff are taking care of it, but we will not see a minister who will take responsibility and we will not see a member of the Greens who will do anything other than support his Labor colleagues. That is all he will do. The myth that the Greens once provided any level of accountability in this government is gone forever.
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