Page 3328 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 August 2008
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minister who has been caught out doing nothing and saying to the community that they can do nothing. That has been her message on GPs and that has been her message on so many areas of health policy.
This is a minister who has gone from portfolio to portfolio and has not got it done. We have a plan to get it done. We have a plan to fill the gaps left by this government. In fact, we have heard promises from this government in all sorts of areas. I believe they did make a promise about after-hours clinics. They made promises about after-hours clinics and they have failed to deliver. They have failed to deliver on their promises.
Mrs Burke: Absolutely. Promised it absolutely.
Ms Gallagher: They are all in operation—all three of them: Tuggeranong, Canberra Hospital and Calvary.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members!
MR SESELJA: It is worth comparing our promises and our plan to deliver versus Katy Gallagher’s proposals. What we have is a plan that is fully costed, fully funded and will deliver—
Ms Gallagher: It is not; what a joke!
MR SESELJA: Well, we amuse ourselves with the press releases that come from Katy Gallagher and from the Treasurer on costings. They take the costing and they times it by 10. They take the costing and they times it by five. That is the standard operating procedure from this government. They have no credibility when it comes to costings; none whatsoever.
Even on the basis of their own budgetary management, we see the estimates out every year by hundreds of millions of dollars. It is about the fact that we have seen massive amounts of revenue and they still tell us that they cannot give any of it back. It is about their promises that they are now making for the next election, which not only do they not cost; they also do not fund them.
They tell us about a pool promise for Gungahlin. How much is it going to cost? We are told, “Oh, well, it will cost somewhere between $10 million and $20 million.” And when will it be built? “Well, sometime in the next few years.” And how will it be built? “Well, we have not quite worked out that level of detail.”
This is a government that, after seven years and with eight weeks to go until an election, put forward uncosted, vague promises to the community. They did the same thing on the GDE. We saw them on the GDE. What this debate is about today and what Ms Gallagher’s response is about is being embarrassed because she has done nothing on this issue. We know her attitude to the issue of GPs because we have heard it. We have heard her on the record say: “It is out of my hands. There is nothing I can do.” That is the Katy Gallagher approach to GPs in the suburbs. Mr Speaker, we know that there are issues—
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