Page 1678 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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So we went looking. I came out and said to my staff, “How did we miss that there was a hydrotherapy pool at Stromlo? We went looking. There was no hydrotherapy pool. I wrote to the Minister for Sport and Recreation to ask her about the plans for a hydrotherapy pool. I waited a long time for the answer. While I was waiting for the answer—there is the old saying that a lie is halfway around the world before truth puts its pants on—that lie was repeated. Over and over again it was repeated on radio by the Chief Minister, it was repeated by Minister Steel on social media and, as a result, it was eventually—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, sorry for the delay. Did you just use the word “lie”?
MRS DUNNE: I did.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think that is unparliamentary. I ask that you withdraw.
MRS DUNNE: I did not say it was a lie used in this place, but if you wish me to withdraw it, I will.
MADAM SPEAKER: Please. I would prefer it. Thank you, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: I withdraw. The inaccuracies of that were allowed to propagate for some time. Eventually I received an answer from Minister Berry, who said the “Stromlo Leisure Centre does not include a stand-alone hydrotherapy pool, but will include a multipurpose pool that will cater for all types of aquatic based hydrotherapy”.
The trouble is that the pool will not be heated sufficiently. The minister went on to provide some specifications for the pool, including that it will be heated to 31 degrees, which is not hot enough. It is not a hydrotherapy pool. We had probably six or so months of hiatus while this inaccuracy was allowed to fester. The Chief Minister went on to say that the hospital hydrotherapy would not close down until the replacement hydrotherapy pool at Stromlo was put in place. But there was never going to be a replacement hydrotherapy pool at Stromlo.
Essentially this motion today makes good what the Chief Minister promised the people of the ACT on Chief Minister Talkback and on other occasions: to not close the hospital pool until we have the proper hydrotherapy facilities on the south side.
Let us think about what hydrotherapy should look like and what the minister has been trying to fob off. There have been lots of discussions over the years about hydrotherapy. Arthritis ACT is the principal player in this space. They have been operating hydrotherapy programs for approximately 25 years. While I say the principal player, there are other people who access hydrotherapy through different mechanisms other than Arthritis ACT.
Currently Arthritis ACT use five pools across Canberra and have about 35 sessions a week. As population grows, demand has grown. There are now 623 people who use
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