Mr HENDERSON - 2000-05-11
I refer to a press release from the health minister, and I quote: ‘The Minister for Health announced today the government’s intention to proceed with the development of a private hospital in Alice Springs. The private facility within Alice Springs Hospital will be operational before the end of the year’. The date of this press release is 17 October 1990. For the benefit of the members opposite I seek leave to table the press release.
Leave granted.
Mr HENDERSON: Last week’s CLP promise to spend $30m at Alice Spring Hospital is no more believable than the election promise 10 years ago. Isn’t this another example of a CLP broken promise? Why, after being lied to for a decade, would any Central Australian believe your phoney announcement last week?
Mr REED: A point of order, Mr Speaker. I would like the honourable member to remove the assertion of lying.
Mr SPEAKER: It is basically a reference to government, it is not against an individual. We can leave it to the Minister for Health to respond to that.
ANSWER
It Is true, Mr Speaker, the opposition lies. The opposition lies all the time and I think one of the reasons that they lie so frequently is that ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister ought not make that inference.
Mr DUNHAM: It is true that in the debates relating to a lot of health issues there are many lies - and they don’t come from this side.
I do not accuse the new member for Wanguri of being a liar, so much as taking advice which is false. I think he should probably look to some of those people who advise him and look at their bona fides. He has already made several assertions in news articles about issues that have proved to be wrong. While I would stand in this House and call him a liar, I think that some of the people who advise him are lying, and he should probably check his sources better. In that way he will probably find that his statements are closer to the truth.
In regard to the Alice Springs Hospital redevelopment, this is a great story and I am glad that the opposition has climbed on board. I am glad that they are happy that the hospital redevelopment will go ahead. I note they take some offence at the word ‘private’. They have great difficulty accepting the fact that some people seek to access private medicine. In accordance with their usual socialist dogma, they hope that all medicine provided in the Northern Territory is provided from the public purse. I can assure them that is not the position of this government. We encourage private providers to come to greenfield sites …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order on both sides. The minister for health has the floor. I would expect to hear this answer in reasonable silence.
A member interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: I think the member for Nhulunbuy might be needing some health services. He will pop a vessel the way he is going.
The issue of the Alice Springs Private Hospital, I am very proud that it is in the budget and I was able to make an early budget announcement last week. We made an early budget announcement so that work could proceed. The John Holland’s Construction group is on site at the moment. They are hungry to get started. The work will progress over 4 stages and will include a private facility.
The budget papers essentially are an act of parliament, and in the budget papers it is stated that the redevelopment of the Alice Springs Hospital will go ahead. It is written in law, L-A-W. That those opposite believe we are appropriating monies for a private facility - and that somehow this is a sleight of hand perpetrated on this parliament - offends the very parliament itself.
I would ask the member for Wanguri to watch and look. I know in that circus opposite he is an oracle. His job is to be the soothsayer and predict the future. Just before Christmas he predicted that many, many neo-natal babies would be sent south. It did not happen. You have a chap here whose capacity to look to the future is very, very poor. He seeks advice from people who tell him porkie pies and, although he promulgates that advice without lying, it is merely, I think, a foolishness.
I suggest that he seek wider advice and that he be very careful about criticising the good work of the Territory Health Services and the good work of this government in providing health services to Territorians.
Leave granted.
Mr HENDERSON: Last week’s CLP promise to spend $30m at Alice Spring Hospital is no more believable than the election promise 10 years ago. Isn’t this another example of a CLP broken promise? Why, after being lied to for a decade, would any Central Australian believe your phoney announcement last week?
Mr REED: A point of order, Mr Speaker. I would like the honourable member to remove the assertion of lying.
Mr SPEAKER: It is basically a reference to government, it is not against an individual. We can leave it to the Minister for Health to respond to that.
ANSWER
It Is true, Mr Speaker, the opposition lies. The opposition lies all the time and I think one of the reasons that they lie so frequently is that ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The minister ought not make that inference.
Mr DUNHAM: It is true that in the debates relating to a lot of health issues there are many lies - and they don’t come from this side.
I do not accuse the new member for Wanguri of being a liar, so much as taking advice which is false. I think he should probably look to some of those people who advise him and look at their bona fides. He has already made several assertions in news articles about issues that have proved to be wrong. While I would stand in this House and call him a liar, I think that some of the people who advise him are lying, and he should probably check his sources better. In that way he will probably find that his statements are closer to the truth.
In regard to the Alice Springs Hospital redevelopment, this is a great story and I am glad that the opposition has climbed on board. I am glad that they are happy that the hospital redevelopment will go ahead. I note they take some offence at the word ‘private’. They have great difficulty accepting the fact that some people seek to access private medicine. In accordance with their usual socialist dogma, they hope that all medicine provided in the Northern Territory is provided from the public purse. I can assure them that is not the position of this government. We encourage private providers to come to greenfield sites …
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order on both sides. The minister for health has the floor. I would expect to hear this answer in reasonable silence.
A member interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: I think the member for Nhulunbuy might be needing some health services. He will pop a vessel the way he is going.
The issue of the Alice Springs Private Hospital, I am very proud that it is in the budget and I was able to make an early budget announcement last week. We made an early budget announcement so that work could proceed. The John Holland’s Construction group is on site at the moment. They are hungry to get started. The work will progress over 4 stages and will include a private facility.
The budget papers essentially are an act of parliament, and in the budget papers it is stated that the redevelopment of the Alice Springs Hospital will go ahead. It is written in law, L-A-W. That those opposite believe we are appropriating monies for a private facility - and that somehow this is a sleight of hand perpetrated on this parliament - offends the very parliament itself.
I would ask the member for Wanguri to watch and look. I know in that circus opposite he is an oracle. His job is to be the soothsayer and predict the future. Just before Christmas he predicted that many, many neo-natal babies would be sent south. It did not happen. You have a chap here whose capacity to look to the future is very, very poor. He seeks advice from people who tell him porkie pies and, although he promulgates that advice without lying, it is merely, I think, a foolishness.
I suggest that he seek wider advice and that he be very careful about criticising the good work of the Territory Health Services and the good work of this government in providing health services to Territorians.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016