Page 540 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 18 February 2015
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MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Lawder): Thank you. Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker. Let us just talk about some of the things that I put in this brochure to tell my constituents about what this government is doing in Belconnen. We will start with the Calvary hospital. There is a new $19 million Calvary hospital multistorey car park for 700 vehicles—something that people in Belconnen have been looking for for a very long time, and now it is going to be delivered. It is going to make better access for patients, visitors and staff. The work also includes an electrical substation, which I note in my brochure, which is going to secure and expand Calvary’s power supply. Calvary’s services will also grow, with an additional 15 acute beds in 2015. That is this year. There is another intensive care bed, $1½ million for birthing services, $1.9 million for lymphoedema services and $1.3 million for ophthalmology. These are particularly important services that my constituents will be very happy to receive and are glad to hear about.
What about the Belconnen Community Health Centre’s new nurse-led walk-in centre which opened in July last year, the Aranda ambulance and fire station, which is going to provide safer and faster response times in the area and is going to be completed in 2016, the Charnwood fire station and John Knight park, with its new outdoor fitness equipment and the recent upgrades to the playground equipment and picnic facilities? What about the Emu Bank upgrades and wetland development, the Scullin shops, which were upgraded with an aviators and travel theme, and the Cook shops, which already have their public toilets in place?
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order!
DR BOURKE: I can see, Madam Speaker, that the thought of public toilets excites members of the opposition, and rightly so, because this is something that is very important when you go to the shops—for older people, for people with children—to have that kind of facility available. That is what has already been delivered by this government at the Calwell shops.
At the Charnwood shops there is the new community gathering space, better signage, parking, bike racks and picnic tables. And, of course, the major piece is the University of Canberra public hospital situated at the north-west corner of the UC campus. Construction is expected to begin in 2015. These are things that have happened, are happening or are going to happen in my electorate. My constituents want to know what is going on, they want to know what is going to happen and they need to know what has been done. I think it is a bit rich for Mrs Dunne to come into this place and criticise my work as a representative telling my constituents what the government is doing.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Justice, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Transport Reform) (6.16): I would like to address some of the specific elements of Mrs Dunne’s motion regarding the state of urban maintenance in
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