Dr LIM - 1999-10-14
During the last sittings I asked the minister what was happening at Alice Springs Hospital and he announced that the government was investigating a private facility. Alice Springs is really hanging on this. Can the minister provide any information as to the current status of the project?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,this has been a pressing issue for some time, particularly for the member for Greatorex who as a general practitioner has a special interest in the matter. I will start by referring to last night’s comments by the Leader of the Opposition, who said:
We know when it comes to a hospital policy the member for Drysdale has no idea what he is doing in hospitals. Show us your hospital policy, Minister for Health! Missing in action. No direction, absolutely no direction, when it comes to hospitals.
Here’s our direction. A mere 6 weeks ago, I mentioned in this House that we’d be going to 3 companies that showed themselves as willing, capable and enthusiastic about offering private health services in Alice Springs when we went to the expressions-of-interest process earlier this year. I announced that Cabinet had agreed prior to the last sittings to proceed with direct approaches to those 3 organisations – Mayne Nickless Ltd’s Healthcare Australia, CHA Pty Ltd, which is the Sisters of Charity health service, and Ramsay Health Care. All of these organisations were very familiar with the hospital, having been through the previous expressions-of-interest process when they tendered for the central Australian region.
I now can inform the House that the new expressions period closed earlier this week, and yesterday we received 3 expressions. The Territory is in the happy position of having 3 of Australia’s foremost providers of health services and hospital services interested in providing a private wing in Alice Springs, a wing that is much overdue. We believe that the people of Alice Springs should have choice. Those who choose to access private admission should be able to do so, and if companies are willing to put their hand in their pocket and contribute, we should also invite them.
This will not impact on the master plan for $14.8m to be spent on the hospital, already announced in this year’s budget. That money is still on track, but it will be held in abeyance until we can complete the investigation of how we would articulate this private service into our current public service.
While I’m on my feet, I will also mention that in the same speech by the Leader of the Opposition, when I questioned her about the Labor Party’s lack of policies, she gave this excuse:
And if the member for Drysdale thinks he can sit there and we’re going to give him all the policy so he can nick it, and we have done the hard work, then think again. The policy will be there at the next election. The fundamentals we will talk about, but the policy will be there at the next election. So don’t get too half-smart and think we’re going to do your work for you.
We’ve made the assumption that the policy that exists at the moment is the one that Labor took to the last election. It’s a very interesting document that sets out Labor’s 5 priorities, the first being ‘the development of an appropriate and sustainable mix of public and community services health services’. This is an interesting reflection on nicking policy. If I go to the Hansard of 22 April 1997, when the now Chief Minister, then Minister for Health, made a ministerial statement, they almost line up. His strategy was ‘to develop an appropriate and sustainable mix of public and community health services. So we’ve got a direct link for policy 1.
Let’s go to policy 2.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I have no idea what relevance this has to the question. I ask you to request him to answer the question instead of filibustering.
Mr SPEAKER: The minister has some leeway in answering the question, but I would appreciate it if he would confine his answer to the question that was asked. Answers are getting very long. We’ve had answers today that have gone as long as 9 minutes and some that were slightly less. I would appreciate your keeping them as short as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: I shan’t take 9 minutes. The link is this. The allegation was made last night that we didn’t know what we were doing with our hospitals. There’s been a question from a very interested, concerned Centralian about what we’re doing about hospitals. I am trying to juxtapose our position, where we have policies, with that of the opposition. The interesting thing I’m pointing out is that the policies that they have are not merely entirely in accord with ours, but they are exact replicas. I am sure Dr Toyne learned when he was doing his research at university that this is called plagiarism. It’s immensely naughty, if nothing else.
Their policies are fairly short. If the parliament will indulge me I can read them quickly.
Mr STIRLING: A point of Order, Mr Speaker!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I must admit that I believe you have answered the question. I can’t recall the connection between what you’re saying now and the question.
Mr DUNHAM: I merely ask those in the press gallery who are interested to juxtapose this document, Labor’s health and community services policy, which is the only one in existence given they don’t have any others, with the ministerial statement given before. Look at Labor’s 5 policies, I am sure they will be struck by the familiarity that comes out of the statement given by the previous Minister for Health. That is my point.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,this has been a pressing issue for some time, particularly for the member for Greatorex who as a general practitioner has a special interest in the matter. I will start by referring to last night’s comments by the Leader of the Opposition, who said:
We know when it comes to a hospital policy the member for Drysdale has no idea what he is doing in hospitals. Show us your hospital policy, Minister for Health! Missing in action. No direction, absolutely no direction, when it comes to hospitals.
Here’s our direction. A mere 6 weeks ago, I mentioned in this House that we’d be going to 3 companies that showed themselves as willing, capable and enthusiastic about offering private health services in Alice Springs when we went to the expressions-of-interest process earlier this year. I announced that Cabinet had agreed prior to the last sittings to proceed with direct approaches to those 3 organisations – Mayne Nickless Ltd’s Healthcare Australia, CHA Pty Ltd, which is the Sisters of Charity health service, and Ramsay Health Care. All of these organisations were very familiar with the hospital, having been through the previous expressions-of-interest process when they tendered for the central Australian region.
I now can inform the House that the new expressions period closed earlier this week, and yesterday we received 3 expressions. The Territory is in the happy position of having 3 of Australia’s foremost providers of health services and hospital services interested in providing a private wing in Alice Springs, a wing that is much overdue. We believe that the people of Alice Springs should have choice. Those who choose to access private admission should be able to do so, and if companies are willing to put their hand in their pocket and contribute, we should also invite them.
This will not impact on the master plan for $14.8m to be spent on the hospital, already announced in this year’s budget. That money is still on track, but it will be held in abeyance until we can complete the investigation of how we would articulate this private service into our current public service.
While I’m on my feet, I will also mention that in the same speech by the Leader of the Opposition, when I questioned her about the Labor Party’s lack of policies, she gave this excuse:
And if the member for Drysdale thinks he can sit there and we’re going to give him all the policy so he can nick it, and we have done the hard work, then think again. The policy will be there at the next election. The fundamentals we will talk about, but the policy will be there at the next election. So don’t get too half-smart and think we’re going to do your work for you.
We’ve made the assumption that the policy that exists at the moment is the one that Labor took to the last election. It’s a very interesting document that sets out Labor’s 5 priorities, the first being ‘the development of an appropriate and sustainable mix of public and community services health services’. This is an interesting reflection on nicking policy. If I go to the Hansard of 22 April 1997, when the now Chief Minister, then Minister for Health, made a ministerial statement, they almost line up. His strategy was ‘to develop an appropriate and sustainable mix of public and community health services. So we’ve got a direct link for policy 1.
Let’s go to policy 2.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! I have no idea what relevance this has to the question. I ask you to request him to answer the question instead of filibustering.
Mr SPEAKER: The minister has some leeway in answering the question, but I would appreciate it if he would confine his answer to the question that was asked. Answers are getting very long. We’ve had answers today that have gone as long as 9 minutes and some that were slightly less. I would appreciate your keeping them as short as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: I shan’t take 9 minutes. The link is this. The allegation was made last night that we didn’t know what we were doing with our hospitals. There’s been a question from a very interested, concerned Centralian about what we’re doing about hospitals. I am trying to juxtapose our position, where we have policies, with that of the opposition. The interesting thing I’m pointing out is that the policies that they have are not merely entirely in accord with ours, but they are exact replicas. I am sure Dr Toyne learned when he was doing his research at university that this is called plagiarism. It’s immensely naughty, if nothing else.
Their policies are fairly short. If the parliament will indulge me I can read them quickly.
Mr STIRLING: A point of Order, Mr Speaker!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I must admit that I believe you have answered the question. I can’t recall the connection between what you’re saying now and the question.
Mr DUNHAM: I merely ask those in the press gallery who are interested to juxtapose this document, Labor’s health and community services policy, which is the only one in existence given they don’t have any others, with the ministerial statement given before. Look at Labor’s 5 policies, I am sure they will be struck by the familiarity that comes out of the statement given by the previous Minister for Health. That is my point.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016