Page 423 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 10 February 2021
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They have said that a mosque is not only a place of worship but also a community centre where people gather for education and even sports, and it is a shelter house where anybody can come. I look forward to seeing the opening of their mosque for their own worship soon. I pay particular tribute to the children who presented at this most recent event, giving us hope for our future with such positive ideas of what the purpose is of community and religious belief.
In our leadership role as MLAs, it is vital that we treat all groups with the same respect and have open dialogue to get to know and care for them in order to make Canberra a genuinely connected and respectful capital city.
Health—skin cancer
MR DAVIS (Brindabella) (4.29): Usually when I get up in this place to talk about health care I will be doing it in my capacity as the ACT Greens spokesperson for health. Sure, sometimes it might be to criticise the government. At other times, though, it might be to introduce a new idea or to give a different perspective. But today I have risen to speak to health care in the capital in my capacity as a son who dearly loves his dad. I will tell you why. I will give you some perspective.
Only a few weeks ago, my old man’s mates finally convinced him to get that sinister-looking mole on his leg checked out—finally. Like many men of his generation, he will happily admit that personal health care can tend to be something you have got to be prodded into doing. After a quick surgery, it was discovered that in fact it was a particularly aggressive melanoma—caught just in time, I am very glad to inform the house.
Why I wanted to rise to draw our attention to that is that so often in the argy-bargy of this place we talk about health care in the context of its shortcomings, places we should be spending money and places we are spending too much money or not enough money, and we talk about the public policy. What we can sometimes fail to remember—and what it behoves us to remind ourselves of in this chamber and out in our community—is that hundreds, if not thousands, of very hardworking, passionate healthcare workers provide absolutely sensational care to Canberrans every single day.
Usually I speak about that in the context of representations that are made to my office by constituents who tell me of their own personal experience. It is rare, and I hope rarer into the future, that I will be able to stand in this place and speak to my own personal experience of only a few weeks ago.
From go to whoa, I cannot fault the excellent staff at the Calvary Public Hospital. To think that, in the space of four weeks, a cancerous mole was identified, Dad had the surgery, was treated by exceptional nurses and an exceptional doctor and is now at home recovering is an absolute credit to our healthcare system. We should not abandon, ignore or look the other way from the shortcomings. But we should always remember to celebrate the fact that we are incredibly lucky to be supported by one of the best healthcare systems in the world.
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