Page 4932 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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In June this year the government invested in further upgrades at Calvary Public Hospital, as have been mentioned, supporting additional treatment spaces, improving access and triage arrangements, enhancing waiting areas and expanding the short-stay unit within that hospital’s emergency department. The June budget also saw a $122 million investment in core hospital services at Canberra Hospital so that more Canberrans can access health care when they need it and access it more quickly. This included more funding for the emergency department, emergency surgery, hospital beds and the intensive care unit, as well as funding for more elective surgeries.
Also in June the minister opened the territory’s third public hospital at the University of Canberra, delivering specialised care for people recovering from surgery, from illness, or experiencing mental illness. In July the minister opened the newly refurbished maternity ward at Calvary Public Hospital, offering an excellent option for Canberra mothers-to-be to deliver their babies in the public system. Having these additional facilities and expanded facilities on the north side takes pressure off the facilities on the south side, as people on the north side are less likely to travel to the south side if they have those facilities available on the north of the city.
In September the minister opened our third nurse-led walk-in centre in Gungahlin, and since then, as we have heard, over 3,000 patients have used this free public healthcare facility. This type of investment in free public health care is bitterly opposed by those opposite and has been throughout its history.
We talk about free public health care in this nation. Let us not forget that the Liberal Party opposed Medicare in its creation and through its first decade and a half. It was only when it was clear that they could not be elected to public office in this nation that they reversed their position on Medicare, and yet over the years they have sought to chip away at it, to privatise elements of it. They have form on Medicare; they have form on public health. And it is poor form. They do not in their hearts believe in free public health care. In their hearts they do not, and the Australian people know that, and Canberrans know that. And they know that if they want a serious investment in public health then they need to vote for progressive political parties.
That is demonstrated time and again around this nation. We saw it in Victoria on the weekend; we saw it in the ACT in 2016; and we are certainly going to see it at the federal election next year; and we are certainly going to see it—
Members interjecting—
MR BARR: In South Australia at the moment the South Australian Premier and the South Australian health system are under enormous pressure because of funding cuts, because the Liberals come in and they want to cut funding to public health. That is exactly what is going on, true to form. Just like Michael Kroger said, following the Victorian election debacle, the Liberal Party’s task is to come in and cut funding. That is what they are about. They is what this mob are about. It is in their DNA. It is what they will always do, because they do not believe in free public health care. We do and we will continue to invest in important services for our community.
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