Page 1328 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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With respect to the money that is due to be expended by this government, the $300 million mentioned by Ms Burch, I am concerned that we are not going to get what we have been told we are going to get in election promises and so on. Some of the proposals put forward in terms of mental health units and so on have already been subject to change. If we look at this government’s record on delivery of major projects, we see that they often keep the dollar figure the same but we see a significant reduction in scope.
Yesterday, when I asked the health minister about the women and children’s hospital and any potential reduction in scope, we got the continual argument that we are spending $90 million, but there was no commitment that they were going to stay within the scope. We saw that with the Alexander Maconochie Centre, which has been delivered with some 75 beds short of the original scope, without the gym, without the outer perimeter fence, without the chapel and so on.
Ms Burch also asked questions about what our strategy was. At the last election we took forward a number of very good proposals for attracting and retaining GPs here in the ACT, with incentives to attract 60 GPs from interstate and overseas to plug the hole that we have got here in the ACT. There were guaranteed internships in our hospitals for graduates from ANU, so that they would not go off to Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney where, once they have done their internship, they are likely to stay. They are unlikely to come back to the ACT.
There were also financial incentives and business support for young graduates to set up their own GP clinics here in Canberra. When you talk about business, I think that is a very important element. It is clear that this government is not friendly towards business, particularly small business. I do not think it is any accident that the small business practitioners, essentially the family clinics, the family centres, are all closing in what is a very unfriendly environment for small business here in the ACT.
There is no doubt that more can be done. You would not believe it from listening to Ms Burch and her adoration of the government’s policy. But I find it interesting that she also agreed that we need to have an inquiry to address what more can be done. Clearly, there is more that can be done. I do not think we have got a mortgage on all the good ideas, and certainly the government does not. We have to make sure that we speak to the experts, to the people in the community who can make a difference. We need to get some ideas together to give to this government, which clearly have run out of sufficient ideas. The evidence is pretty clear that they have run out of ideas when you look at the facts in terms of the number of GPs and so on.
We welcome the amendment and the opposition will be supporting it. The intent that I have is to make sure that there is an outcome from this process, that we have an inquiry that can investigate these issues and present ideas to the government. Although the preamble will have been lost, which I think was quite relevant and did highlight the failings of this government, I understand why you would want that removed. In the interests of making sure that we do have an inquiry, I am happy to see that removed, so that we get the result that we need.
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