Page 2591 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (4.20): I feel that Mr Humphries is just grandstanding. He thinks he has found a loose link in the Government's program. But I noticed that, when the Minister was trying to give him some figures, he was not even terribly interested in listening; he was talking to somebody else. It is no mystery; he got a letter that fell off the back of a truck. Obviously, the board has made up its mind about what it thinks the Minister will do. I am always fascinated by the way in which people seem to know exactly what you are going to do when you have not made up your own mind about it. So immediately, obviously, they send a confidential - - -
Mr Humphries: I raise a point of order. The Minister is casting aspersions on the members of the interim hospitals board and I think that is a totally unjustifiable assertion to make. She suggested quite clearly - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Humphries, thank you for your point, but it is not a point of order. Please proceed, Mrs Grassby.
MRS GRASSBY: I find it interesting that Mr Humphries had exactly the same letter as the one the Minister had, and the Minister's letter was marked "confidential". Obviously, Mr Humphries has had it for a few days, as he virtually admitted when the Minister asked him why he had asked about it when he already had a copy of the letter. Mr Humphries just wanted to see what the Minister had to say.
This Government has had to make a hard decision about Royal Canberra Hospital, and at least we have made it. We have inherited a run-down, out-of-date hospital that should have been pulled down. But instead we will spend $2.5m on Royal Canberra to keep the hospital and take it into the year 2000. Of course it is cheaper to run Woden. It is a much more up-to-date, modern hospital. It was built to run as a cheaper hospital.
As for Calvary, we are speaking of an even more modern hospital. As we have just been told by Dr Kinloch, it has many empty beds, so it does not require so many staff. It has different services. It is also run by nuns. As I was trained in a hospital run by nuns, I can tell you they work much longer hours than any nurse works. They work from sun-up to sundown and they do not get paid for it, so of course their hospital is cheaper to run. As they will tell you, they do it all for the love of God. I used to think I was doing it all for the love of God when I worked for them, too.
I feel that Mr Humphries thinks he has unearthed something, does not know what it is and wants to find out what is going on. It would be better if he waited to find out what the Minister had in mind. I think the nursing staff at
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