Page 3142 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (11.44): We have seen a motion brought forward by Mr Seselja that covers three substantive points in relation to the administration of the health system in the ACT over a very long period, and neither the Chief Minister nor her deputy could bring themselves to address any of those issues. They cannot bring themselves to address any of those issues because the evidence is too damning. The evidence about the sick culture that we see in the ACT health system and in the Canberra Hospital is too appalling. And in the time available to me, I want to look further at that sick culture but also reflect on the human face of that culture.
The sick culture in the ACT and in the Canberra Hospital was brought home to everybody when the Chief Minister herself declared that there had been a 10-year war in obstetrics, and that 10-year war came to a head in February 2010 when it was revealed that the culture was so toxic that over 15 months nine doctors had left the obstetrics department. Some of those were registrars who had not finished their training and they put their training in jeopardy. So it must have been pretty bad when people had committed to 17, 15 years worth of training and study and were prepared to walk out before they were professionally qualified and had to go somewhere else and start again. So that toxic culture jeopardised the careers of emerging doctors.
We see just how toxic the culture was, because, in addition to describing this as mudslinging doctor politics, Chief Minister Katy Gallagher’s friend, mentor, mate, the then Chief Minister, actually went out and perpetuated the bullying by saying, “If we’re going to have an inquiry into all of this, we should look at all of the complaints to the Medical Board current and, say, back for the past 10 years that involved any of the obstetricians who had the audacity to complain about the 10-year war in obstetrics.” And the AMA and the college of obstetricians and gynaecologists called it for what it was. It was a witch-hunt, and it was a witch-hunt perpetuated by her leader, her mate, her mentor.
It is about leadership. This is all about leadership. Organisations go bad because of bad leadership. The bad leadership started with Jon Stanhope and has been perpetuated by this Chief Minister. And we see in the 10-year war in obstetrics that this minister has misled the community and misled us in this place. She said in this place in March 2010 that there would be a public inquiry, an open inquiry. And the then Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, went on radio and made similar assurances:
I can give an absolute assurance that any of the findings will be taken absolutely seriously and if there were recommendations or implications they will be taken seriously and there’s no reason for people not to believe that.
He said that there was no reason for people not to believe it. But there was every reason, because the words of the then Chief Minister on ABC radio were lies. And they were part of a cover-up. We know that there was a cover-up in relation to the inquiry, which led the union organiser to say:
… staff are often kept in the dark. They need to know if action has been taken, if appropriate action has been taken, if they’re going to be safe in their workplaces.
This is not the Canberra Liberals. This is the union saying that people need to be safe in their workplaces.
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