Page 2348 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017

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So I call on the Opposition Leader to lead his party—to actually lead his party on this issue, as his title suggests—to reassure the women of Canberra that this entire Assembly respects them as autonomous individuals who are capable of making their own decisions about their own bodies; to support those women who make the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy; and to recognise that a woman deserves to be treated with dignity and respect when she accesses abortion services, because her decision is no-one else’s business.

These principles are not conscience based. They are basic common sense. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to show leadership and to overrule the absent shadow health minister and other Liberal Party members by supporting a woman’s right to choose. This is not a game. This is not a motion being brought for political reasons. As the health minister said, this is absolutely urgent.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Canberra Hospital—infrastructure

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (12.13): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that the ACT Health Infrastructure Asset Condition Report and Minor Works Priorities prepared by AECOM Australia Pty Ltd identified four extreme risks and 143 high risks at The Canberra Hospital; and

(2) calls on the Minister for Health and Wellbeing to report to the Legislative Assembly, by the first sitting day of September 2017, on the progress of work to fix each of the extreme and high risk issues identified in the AECOM report including:

(a) the cost of fixing each of the issues;

(b) progress to date on each of the issues; and

The Canberra Hospital was opened in 1973 in the guise of the Woden Valley Hospital and it took in its first patients in that year. After some redevelopment in the early 1990s, the Royal Canberra Hospital and the Woden Valley Hospital were amalgamated on one campus and in 1996 it was renamed the Canberra Hospital.

But some elements of the now 40-year old campus have been allowed to continue operating without substantial refurbishment. In April this year we saw a consequence of that when a fault in the main electrical switchboard in building 2 caught fire. This fire resulted in patient evacuations, infrastructure closures, equipment shutdown and surgery cancellations and impacted on a range of other operational elements. Against the odds, the staff of the hospital did their very best to ensure the safety of all patients and must be applauded for their dedication.

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