Page 2152 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
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The minister could have been up-front and provided that document. It would have saved health officials a whole lot of effort. It would have saved the Assembly a whole lot of money. The world did not come to an end because the people of the ACT got to see the AECOM document about the high risks at the Canberra Hospital and elsewhere. The world has not come to an end. However, we can ask questions about it.
The other question that needs to be answered is: if there was $19 million set aside for UMAHA and $42 million has been consumed by two switchboards, what has given? What else has not been done?” There are a whole lot of things that have been taken off the list and there are other things that have been put on the list.
There are issues relating to plumbing in the delivery suites in the brand new women’s and children’s hospital. And the only reason that we know about that is that somebody told the opposition. Somebody came and told us, “You need to look at what is happening with all the plumbing work that is being done.” But consistently, one after the other, all the delivery suites in a new hospital were taken offline because of water ingress and mould. It was a health hazard. This minister did not tell anyone about it until she was forced to. That is her track record. That is her form. That is the way she rolls.
This minister has had plenty of opportunities to play nice. She does not know how to. The Canberra Liberals will stand up for the people of the ACT and ensure that, as much as possible, we will expose where things have gone wrong. Something went wrong with those switchboards if it suddenly moved from a $14 million project to a $42 million project. The fact is that the minister had to say that the scope of the work evolved. That is some evolution.
What we have got here today is an unacceptable response. The people of the ACT deserve to know what is going on in their hospitals, how safe their hospital buildings are, where the risks are, and they deserve to know that the people for whom they are paying a princely sum to have on the government benches are looking after those things and are working to make them safe, to bring them up to date, to make them fit for purpose in the 21st century.
Mr Rattenbury is right. We need all those things he talked about. We need fit-for-purpose buildings. And many of the buildings that Canberra Health staff are working in are not fit for purpose. This minister today is cocking a snoot and basically saying, “I don’t particularly care, and I’m not going to tell you.”
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Medical and Health Research, Minister for Transport and Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) (3.59), by leave: I was looking to the end of the debate to reject Ms Lawder’s assertions about my earlier comments. They have been misunderstood by those opposite. If there was any offence taken then I apologise for that. But they were misunderstood by them, with their very thin skin in this place.
Question put:
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