Page 3118 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.34): I thank Ms Fitzharris for bringing this motion to the Assembly this afternoon because it is very important to talk about the considerable investment the government is making into health facilities in our city on behalf of the people of Canberra. It is a very large part of the ACT budget, and we need to make sure that facilities and services are as contemporary as possible and that access to services is as good as it can be. Infrastructure makes a very important contribution to improving access, particularly where you are increasing capacity overall.
I heard the comments of the Leader of the Opposition. What I would say in response to his comments is that I think he needs to do much better research. When you look at the amendment he has circulated in this place, a significant number of the claims he makes in his amendment are factually wrong. If this Leader of the Opposition wants to be the minister for health, or indeed a credible alternative chief minister, he needs to fix some of the very sloppy work that we see in this amendment today.
Let me highlight a couple of examples. First of all, he continues his completely disingenuous and false claims when it comes to the University of Canberra public hospital. He knows and I know—and we all know in this place—how the subacute facility is designed to operate and that it has a mix of overnight and day spaces. We all understand that. All the reports that go back over years say that. Again, his capacity to be disingenuous knows no bounds.
There is also his claim about the bush healing farm. If he had spoken to anyone engaged in this project he would know that work is underway on the bush healing farm and has been for a number of months. It is a project strongly supported by the local Indigenous community. But we have Mr Hanson making the false, sloppy and disingenuous claim that work has not yet started.
Mr Hanson: I did not say that.
MR CORBELL: Yes, you did. You said:
allocated $10.8 million in 2007 for the Farm but work has yet to be started;
That is paragraph (1)(c) of your motion, Mr Hanson. Mr Hanson again makes a false claim, but we know that is par for the course when we are dealing with this Leader of the Opposition. We have also seen the other assertions that he has made in the motion. We have seen his claims in relation to the secure mental health facility and the adult mental health inpatient facility. Let us be really clear. These are facilities welcomed by Canberrans.
Everybody else in this place and in the community is saying, “It’s a great outcome for our city to see these facilities being delivered.” But, of course, from Mr Hanson it is just another opportunity to be disingenuous and to spread misleading and inaccurate
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