Page 2593 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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our disabled kids, towards special needs kids. We think that is important; we think that is a priority. We are prepared to invest in that area because we think that there is a need, just as we think that there is a need to invest in the maintenance of our schools. Our kids are in substandard facilities in many schools that are over capacity. We are prepared to invest in those areas.
It is a bizarre world we have when we are being attacked by the Greens and the Labor Party for wanting to put money into hospitals and into supporting disabled kids. What a bizarre world. Their only answer to that seems to be, “We’re worried about a budget black hole.” I have just told you where the money comes from—from the tram; $375 million of it. So there is no black hole. That is a myth; that is not true. I can point to the budget line item where that money is. Once, as we know, it was going to go to the Canberra Hospital, because Ms Gallagher told us. She is up on the hill now. She is probably looking at this—but I am sure she will stay loyal to her party—and I imagine in her heart of hearts she is glad to see that this announcement has been made today, as I know many clinicians are.
I was down at the Canberra Hospital today and I greeted and met many dozens of hospital workers as they came to work. We gave them a copy of our plan. Let me tell you: they were delighted. Their response was: “Get on with it, because we’ve been promised this by the Labor Party and they cancelled it. We want this to happen.” They are the people at the front line that know that this needs to be done and that this is a priority. Long enough we have heard the promises—the on again, the off again; it is in the budget, it is out of the budget. The plan now from Labor, as they said in estimates, is to crisis manage extreme and high-risk infrastructure. That is the short-sighted nature of this government and the way that they are running this health system, which is to crisis manage extreme and high-risk infrastructure. That is not the Liberal way.
This plan has been received well, as I said. A number of us were down near the Canberra Hospital greeting workers. It was received by many of them very enthusiastically. Their comment was not: “Should you do it? Shouldn’t you do it?” Their only comment was: “It’s time. Let’s get on with it. Let’s do this.” These people care passionately. Our doctors, our nurses, our allied health professionals, our wardsmen and our people working in that hospital system care passionately about what they do. Let us make sure that they are working in world-class facilities so they can do what they do best, and that is to deliver world-class health services. As the President of the ACT AMA has said:
It’s a bloody fantastic initiative, it is just really a great piece of policy and we would really like to support this.
He said:
There’s a very rapidly closing window of opportunity. The current facilities are only just holding on and if you delay this sort of infrastructure any longer it may well mean the wheels will come off the cart and the hospital won’t cope … The hospital is at breaking point.
That is our doctors’ representative that is saying that. Our clinicians, our nurses, our workers and our patients deserve this. They are the people that turn up and work hard every day on the front line and they deserve this.
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