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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4161 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

How could the Health Minister suggest that those who do not declare their private hospital status now, in order that they can be treated as public patients in a public system at no cost, would announce their private hospital status and request private hospital care in the private hospital, where charges would be far higher than they would be if they were treated as private patients in the public system?

It is a nonsense to suggest that people are going to change their ways for the opportunity to travel at greater expense in the private hospital. The fact of the matter is that these patients are going to be taken from other private hospitals, unless the public system is squeezed. That is the risk here. With this Government, it is the probability. Pressure will be put onto public patients, with fewer beds. People will be pressured into the private sector in order that the Government can save money.

Mr Speaker, this is an ideological move from people who think that the private sector has all the answers for the community. It has no trust in the public sector, it has no belief in the public sector, and it has no understanding of the service provision aspects of the public sector - a most important feature of any public hospital system. This report is extremely critical of the Government's approach. It demonstrates that the Government's approach was a dud approach and that the Government arrogantly disregarded the needs of existing ACT businesses in order to pursue an ideological goal which had never been raised with the community in the ACT. That is a dishonest government at work. It is not something that will be forgotten by the community. I commend the report to the Assembly.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Motion (by Mr Moore, by leave) agreed to:

That:

(1) if the Assembly is not sitting when the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment has completed its inquiry into outdoor lighting, the Committee may send its Report to the Speaker or, in the absence of the Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker, who is authorised to give directions for its printing, circulation and publication; and

(2) the foregoing provisions of this resolution have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders.

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