Page 5202 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009

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Because of those concerns around staff and the industrial matters that have been raised with us by staff, and also through the Australian Nursing Federation, we would be seeking a discussion with the minister around how she is going to address those concerns, along with a number of other concerns that have obviously been raised by the Palliative Care Society, the health consumers and, as I have just said, the ANF. We will be seeking to have a meeting to get all the detail around the concerns raised and the solutions that have been proposed.

Amendment agreed to.

MR HANSON (Molonglo) (3.09), by leave, I move:

Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:

“(1) notes that the Government’s proposal to purchase Calvary Hospital and sell Clare Holland House:

(a) has followed very poor public process;

(b) will provide no health benefit to the ACT;

(d) will result in the loss of Clare Holland House as a publicly owned hospice;

(2) calls on the Government to immediately cease negotiations on the purchase of Calvary Hospital and sale of Clare Holland House; and

(3) calls on the Minister for Health to outline new options to deliver improved public hospital services in the north of Canberra.”.

I have already spoken about the reason that we will not be supporting the Greens motion, because, ultimately, it is a sham. It is an exercise in playing catch-up and in spin. The morally superior speeches we are hearing from the Greens today are a desperate attempt to cover up the fact that ultimately when this was being debated back in June and October they completely missed the fact that Clare Holland House was part of this deal.

Everybody knows the facts—that is, the government went to the Little Company of Mary and took the proposal to sell Clare Holland House. It is the government’s proposal. Little Company of Mary have said that they will not do the deal without the sale of Clare Holland House. Indeed, that is why it was incorporated into the deal, and the health minister has said this. She said that she “approached the Little Company of Mary myself” and asked them whether they would consider the proposal being separated as an outcome of the consultation process. They will not, we know that. So, the exercise by the Greens today is an exercise in futility. It is up to the government to separate the deals, because they are the ones that put it on the table. Ultimately, they are the ones that will live or die on this decision.

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