Page 3124 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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Last week there was a letter to the editor in the Canberra Times that summed up what I believe many Canberrans will think about this motion, what they will think about the wasted week of our collective time and the grinding, pointless, tedious template negativity of the Canberra Liberals. The letter was headed “Enough petty politics” and read in part:
Let us stop the federal disease spreading into Canberra. Petty politics for the sake of politics is counter-productive and that is what we are seeing from the Canberra Liberals as they try to smear the Chief Minister in preparation for their vote of no confidence in the Assembly.
It is interesting, that use of the word “disease”. We deal with physical disease very well in this community, whatever the Liberal Party might pretend. We have a world-class hospital system backed up by world-class community health facilities and a great primary healthcare system delivered by GPs. The disease referred to by the letter writer is a more insidious one, but it, too, can be dealt with and it, too, can be beaten.
Canberrans will judge my government on its record come 20 October. I will spend the days between now and then laying out my vision for this community and this city for the next four years. For whatever reason, and to their great shame, this is something the Canberra Liberals are unwilling or unable to do.
When I entered this parliament back in 2001 I made a promise to myself and to the community I represent to always work hard, to work diligently, to always act in the best interests of the community, to act honestly, to act with decency and to act with integrity. I have stayed true to that promise, and I always will.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10.46): Health services are one of if not the most important services governments provide. To allege, as the Canberra Liberals have today, that the state of the ACT health services has degraded to the worst in the country is a serious matter. Just as serious is the allegation that the Chief Minister purposely deceived the ACT people about the health services they are receiving.
The first clause in Mr Seselja’s motion today is that the Minister for Health has taken the ACT’s health system from one of the best performing in the country and turned it into one of the worst. There are many indicators to show that this is not true. As I have said before publicly—and this is not some revelation as Mr Hanson tried to suggest when I said it before—there are good things about the ACT health system but there are things that need to be improved, just like any health service across the country.
The article in the Canberra Times this week noted that Canberrans wait longer on average than most other Australians to be treated in hospital. But, once admitted, they are the least likely to acquire an infection on the ward. They are also far less likely to need to return to hospital within a month compared with New South Wales patients. If what matters most to members in this place is the health outcomes patients achieve, we should pay more attention to quality indicators rather than waiting time indicators, as has been recommended by the Auditor-General.
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