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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4960 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Recommendation 3 asks for the Attorney-General to request the Government Solicitor to examine the contract and other agreements to ensure that they comply with trade practices legislation. The Attorney-General's Department, through the ACT Government Solicitor, has been closely involved in the whole process right from the start. The Government Solicitor's Office has been actively represented in the negotiation of the agreement to lease and other agreements to ensure compliance with trade practices and other relevant ACT and Commonwealth legislation. The Government Solicitor is currently working with the Canberra Hospital to develop service level agreements and any other required contractual arrangements. I fail to see what else it is going to do.

The fourth recommendation seeks an examination by the Auditor-General of the arrangements between the Government and Health Care of Australia, to ensure that the ACT taxpayer is receiving a fair return on their investment. The recommendation also proposes that the Auditor-General continue to monitor these arrangements. The Government supports this recommendation, in that the Auditor-General is able, at his own discretion, to examine government contracts to ensure probity and an appropriate return to the ACT. I should point out that it is not in the Government's or the Canberra Hospital's interest to subsidise the new private hospital. I can promise you that that is not what is being planned.

Recommendation 5 is a longwinded statement that says that all private hospitals must have the same level of access to the Canberra Hospital Accident and Emergency Department and that procedures should be developed to ensure this. Of course we agree with this, but this must not interfere with the provision of emergency care to patients or the efficient operation of the A and E Department. We consider the collection of data on admissions to private hospitals from the Accident and Emergency Department to be an onerous burden on busy staff. However, we support the need for explicit protocols on the roles of public and private hospital staff in terms of informing patients of their options and arranging transfers.

Mr Berry, the recommendations are grasping at straws, because there is little else that you could do to criticise the Government in this area. Mr Berry made a play of accusing us of not consulting with the private hospital sector, somehow implying that we should have paid scarce public health funds to develop services which the private hospital will provide. It is hard for me to understand what he is talking about. In fact, the new hospital will put money into the coffers of the Canberra Hospital. Mr Hird has pointed out in his minority report that it would have been totally inappropriate for the Government to have colluded with hospitals which would have been in competition in the tender process. It is important to realise that John James was able to tender in this process.

The Government made this an open and even-handed process. It even had an independent probity auditor involved at every step of the way. We are squeaky clean. Not only that; we have brought real choice to privately insured patients in the ACT and surrounding region. I am pleased with the way the hospital is developing. More than 100 people have and will have jobs on the site during building and significantly more than that will have jobs when the hospital is operating.

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