Page 3758 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 September 2018

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(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) finalise and announce the terms of reference and appointment of Independent Review members by the end of September 2018;

(b) ensure that appropriate protections and privacy arrangements are in place for those participating in the Review; and

I note that the motion calls for the board of inquiry to be only into ACT Health. The independent review that I have announced will actually go further, in recognition that public health care is delivered by other organisations. As such it will include the delivery of public healthcare services within Calvary Public Hospital. Staff there should be given this opportunity as well. I believe an independent review is the best way to achieve the outcomes that all stakeholders seek to achieve. It will be the best way to respect our staff and the staff delivering public health care every day in Canberra.

I have a responsibility to take all of these matters very seriously, to weigh up the issues and to seek frank and thoughtful advice from a range of people about these matters. I do this every day in my job but especially following the conversations I had with the AMA ACT branch before I announced the independent review last Monday.

I have received support not to hold a board of inquiry from a range of organisations, including the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons—a widely respected leader in the field of workplace culture in the medical profession—the royal college of nurses, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the Health Care Consumers Association, and a range of others who have spoken publicly. I have also received many offers of assistance and advice, and I thank everyone for those. I have heard from staff who wish to raise matters and I have let them know that they will be able to do so.

As many have said over the past week, many staff and stakeholder groups welcome an opportunity to have input into an independent process. They want to get that done in the safest way, and get back to their jobs of healing and caring. They want the report to be made public and the government to respond. That is exactly what we will do.

I have received advice and representations from a wide group of people, and that advice has been brought together. And we have had conversations with public healthcare leaders around the country about participating in this process. I said yesterday, and I will say again today, that the independent panel and the terms of reference for the independent review will be announced in the coming days.

In this conversation staff delivering public health care across Canberra are our most important stakeholders right now, and we owe it to them to get this right and to hear from them how they can be part of this process. I also reflect on the words of the former ACT independent health minister in a previous Liberal government, Michael Moore, who, this week, in an article titled “Why Health doesn’t need an expensive check-up”, said:

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