Page 4711 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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advantages to the Gallagher proposal: first, there would be emergency services access and egress from a major arterial road. Second, it would be connected to and integrated with the existing hospital directly. But the government shelved that idea.
In 2016, the Canberra Liberals, under Mr Hanson, picked up the idea and made an election commitment to build the much needed hospital. Only weeks before the election, the government had a light bulb moment. It realised that it could not allow the opposition to have such a good idea and take it to the election. It could have been seen to be doing a “me too” even though the idea had come from one of their own in the first place. So they pulled out the proverbial drink coaster and came up with a $500 million election promise. Let us call that SPIRE 1. It was to be built where the helipad is.
Of course, someone realised that that was not a very good idea because then there would be nowhere on the hospital premises for the helicopter to land. So SPIRE 1 became SPIRE 2, the drink coaster was expanded to a volume, and the SPIRE now shifted to a location between Hospital Road and Palmer Street. To say that the planning for this facility has been woeful, reactive and unstrategic is a gross understatement. The SPIRE, as is currently planned, overshadows Garran Primary School, where 600 children come and go, and is opposite local residences on Palmer Street.
The current health minister will tell you that SPIRE fronts Hospital Road. She goes quiet on the fact that the ambulance access will be via the ambulance deck at the rear of the building on Palmer Street. Never mind the local residents and 600 school children who attend Garran Primary School. Never mind the fact that the many ambulance arrivals and departures every day will be using Gilmore Crescent and Palmer Street. Never mind that ambulances will have to deal with the traffic congestion at school o’clock twice a day. Never mind that there will be ambulances taking longer to access the emergency department. Never mind that the longer transport times might compromise patient outcomes.
And when did the government decide to consult with local residents and community stakeholders, such as the parents of the children who go to Garran Primary School? Madam Speaker, this government in its arrogance decided it would consult on SPIRE only after it had made two important decisions: SPIRE’s location and after calling for expressions of interest for the design and build. The people of Garran know that this is blatant lip-service. They know that nothing they say in this so-called consultation process will make an iota of difference to the government’s decision to locate SPIRE opposite their school and opposite their homes.
What we have here today is the people of Garran speaking: 737 of them have written on a petition asking for the government to reconsider the location of SPIRE. But the minister has made it perfectly clear, as she did at the Woden Valley Community Council quite recently, that that is not negotiable. However, this petition, because it has reached the threshold of more than 500 signatures, will be referred to a committee. I hope that the committee, which I presume will be the health committee, will consider the important issues.
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