Page 704 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2005
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I made—it was in that context—and I stand by it. This is a good government; this is a responsible government. It is the sort of government that the people of Canberra want—a government you can trust; a government you can trust to govern well; a government that the people of Canberra know is interested in good governance.
It is why we got the historically high vote we got just four months ago. It is why you were belted in the comprehensive way in which you were belted. It is why the people of Canberra sent the signal to you: no, we do not want this mob. It is actually why, after a week of intensive advertising “vote Liberal as if your life depended on it”—and guess what the people of Canberra did?—because they knew their life depended on not voting for you, they took you absolutely literally. “Vote as if your life depends on it”, and, by jingo, they did.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come to the point of the question, please, Chief Minister.
Aged care accommodation
MR GENTLEMAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Can the minister please advise of progress with development of the new aged care complex at section 87 Aikman Drive, Belconnen?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Gentleman, for that important question. This is another sign of the way in which this government is delivering for the people of Canberra the first major addition, in a greenfields sense, to aged care facilities within the ACT for probably a decade or so. We went through seven years of Liberal government. Do you know how many aged care beds were delivered in the last term of the Liberal government—a four-year term? They delivered 14 beds in four years. That is the record; that is the legacy; that is what we inherited: four years for 14 beds. This is a tremendous achievement for the relevant minister, Mr Corbell, and for the LDA. They have negotiated an Australian first. This is an Australian first. This is a sign of the way forward in relation to the delivery of aged care facilities in the ACT.
Mr Corbell: Even Gary Humphries agrees with it!
MR STANHOPE: Gary Humphries signed up to it, ticked it off and said, “Well done.” There was innovative, strategic, lateral, thinking. The LDA said, “Look, we can do this better. We can actually identify land; we can establish a land bank out into the future; we can arrange with the commonwealth for a one-stop approach to the delivery of aged care facilities in the ACT. Let’s work together, let’s not have the process that has bedevilled the delivery of aged care beds in a timely fashion since the year dot. Let’s have a new approach to this, have the states and territories work with their aged care providers to identify the greenfields site, and work with the commonwealth to have beds delivered to the site at the time of the sale or delivery of the land.”
That is what we have achieved here. The ACT government, through the LDA, has identified land suitable for 100 aged care beds and 150 independent living units on the one site. That land was identified and made available by the ACT government, working in cooperation with the commonwealth—not against them, not with tension—and the land and allocated beds were delivered to a provider selected through a merit selection process. I am particularly pleased that the provider which, in this instance, has been
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