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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2341 ..

MR PRATT

the shopping centre there. That is where people shop. It is the most significant marketing area in that region and that is where a medical centre would be best placed.

I know that the government has tried its best in recent times to do something about that, but clearly we are getting nowhere. We would prefer to see market forces determine who sets up shop and in what shape and we would continue to support that approach to the establishment of viable, efficient community services. But when that has not happened and time has passed, I think government does have a role to step in and provide the incentives needed to find it somewhat more attractive for a medical partnership to turn up in that area. The people of Lanyon would like to see a cross-discipline capability existing there and it is something that is well and truly due.

Mr Deputy Speaker, with the generous grant of Liberal Party inspired and implemented GST revenues, we would like to think that this government was awash with resources in terms of the delivery of services to both medical and educational areas. After it has come to realise that, we would encourage the government to try to find the resources or to redeploy some of those resources to provide some form of incentive scheme to allow the well overdue establishment of a medical centre in that area.

Sitting suspended from 6.28 to 8.01 pm.

MRS BURKE (8.01): There are just a few general observations I'd like to make and things I'd like to say about the Department of Health and Community Care line that we're discussing now. I think, as has been said, health is another area where it's simply not a matter of throwing money at a particular problem. I was pleased to see the very lofty and admirable health objectives which hopefully the government will be meeting, working very hard to meet or continuing to work very hard to meet and deliver a high service to our community.

In fact, I do have information that suggests it isn't about money. I think most of us would agree that simply throwing money at a problem isn't always going to be the answer to it. It is about, I think, people in leadership-and particularly ministers- needing possibly to work harder to ensure a more effective use of resources, and that's probably what we've been hearing about as well. It's about how we better use money, how we channel it, how we assess the needs and how we listen to the community and focus our attention on addressing those needs in a practical way.

It is like any business. We need to continually change with the times and, in this case, the changing needs of our community. I hope that the government-and I keep saying it-keep listening to the community and hearing what the community is saying.

I look at the objectives, as I said, and hope that some of the budget goes some way to meeting some of those objectives. I'm not sure that the minister is totally achieving all of the things here at the moment. We give him probably a small star, but I think there's always room for improvement.

I am very sad to see that Winnunga Nimmityjah have been let down again. They were promised two workers before the last election. It now seems the goalposts have changed slightly. I think I've heard the Health Minister saying that it will be before

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