Page 3554 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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We had a promise before the 2016 election, never delivered. Now we have a new promise that will not be finished until after the election after the next election. The delivery date for these projects is going out further and out further and out further every time we hear it spoken about. We have had the AMA come out about the ageing hospital infrastructure which is contributing to the long waits in our hospital.
I commend Mrs Dunne’s motion today because we just cannot trust this government’s promises about health infrastructure. It is all promise. It is all spin. It is all hot air and very little in the way of delivery. I thank Mrs Dunne for bringing this motion to the Assembly today.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.06): I note Ms Stephen-Smith’s amendment to my motion, and I am somewhat surprised really to see that there is minimal change to the motion, which is not the government’s usual form. It is also gratifying that the minister has committed to the reporting dates in the original motion. I do not have any real problem with her re-editing of the “notes” so long as the “calls on” part remains the same, which it does.
I reflect on some of the comments that have been made. I notice that the ministers, Mr Rattenbury and Ms Stephen-Smith, spent a lot of time talking about the money that they had been spending but the real concern is that we are spending a lot of money and we do not seem to be getting substantial and adequate improvements to the hospital.
I have recently come across a figure in the order of $400 million of works underway and planned, which are essentially refurbishments of decaying buildings. All this goes to the point that was made by Dr Di Dio that the problem is that we have decaying buildings, we have crumbling infrastructure, but the problem is that instead of taking a holistic approach to this, which is what Katy Gallagher when she was the Minister for Health, proposed in 2012 and started the planning of in 2013, they are doing a sort of piecemeal approach. Dr Di Dio has said that this piecemeal approach is not actually solving the problem. We will not solve the problem until we have substantial new buildings.
We are not going to see substantial new buildings until, roughly, the election after the next. This is far too long. I suppose what the government has done is reinforce the point that was made by the outgoing health minister at the last election, when Mr Hanson announced our policy at the last election. The outgoing health minister’s response was immediate. He said it was nonsense, it was unnecessary, we would never have to do this for another 10 years. He was wrong because it is quite clear that the crumbling infrastructure at the Canberra Hospital is breaking under the strain. Dr Di Dio, the current President of the AMA, and the previous president of the AMA have both spoken about the need for new infrastructure going back to 2016.
Actually what this government has done is that it has implemented the parting wish of Simon Corbell and ensured that we will wait at least 10 years before we have a radical rebuild of the hospital completed. We should have had that radical rebuild of the hospital already completed and occupied. It is not beyond the wit of some Labor
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