Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In contributing to this debate, I think it is important to say at the outset that there are important principles being discussed this evening in relation to this motion. I object to the motion. The Greens will be voting against it. It gives us as a Senate the opportunity to discuss two significant points of principle, however. The first is the right of this chamber to inquire into the workings of legislatures at the state and territory level. It is my view that this chamber as a chamber of the national parliament does have the right to inquire into the workings, decision-making and policy of other chambers of the Commonwealth because, at the end of the day, we are all here representing all of the people of Australia. However, there is an important threshold that must be met before such an investigation or inquiry should appropriately be launched by this chamber. Firstly, there should be compelling evidence of systemic failure negatively impacting upon the people of one of the states or territories of the Commonwealth. Secondly, there should be compelling evidence that there is an active effort to cover up that systemic failing driven by corruption or other motives. In this case, neither of those thresholds have been met. For the coalition to suggest any differently is ridiculous.

The ACT government, proudly and ably contributed to by three Greens cabinet-level ministers, have taken the decision to run their health system in a way that best serves the people of the territory, as is their right and their commission on behalf of the voters that contribute to the constituencies of the ACT Legislative Assembly. This chamber recently passed a territory rights amendment bill to give to the territory full rights to govern itself. Yet the Liberals bring this motion into this place today to backseat-drive them, to question them, to present to this chamber the idea that we should be meddling in the way they run their services. Well, that is just not on, particularly in the absence of any evidence that those two thresholds have been met.

Now, let us go to the substance of what is actually happening in the ACT at the moment in relation to public health care and the hospital system. The ACT government has made the decision to acquire the land of Calvary Hospital, to acquire the staff and operations and to bring them into the governance of the ACT structures for the public health system. This is a decision that has been made by the ACT government, which is made up of a coalition of Greens and Labor MPs, and it is one the federal Greens fully support. It is a necessary decision that has been made to enable the effective delivery of healthcare services across the ACT.

The ACT should be supported to get underway in building a bigger, modern hospital as part of a single network, on the north side, that provides all Canberrans with the healthcare services they need, close to their homes. That is what this is about. It is about the people of the territory getting the health care they need, when they need it and where they are, in the most effective way possible. While this decision was made by the chief minister, the decision was made at the cabinet level, with your Greens MLAs at that table. The acquisition is also subject to scrutiny from various committees on which the Greens have MLAs sitting. A single-network health system will mean better efficiencies in the delivery of public health services in the ACT, better mobility of services and staff across the three hospitals, and clearer clinical governance. These are all good things that should be welcomed and supported.

The ACT government believes that a single-network health system is the best option for the territory—and they are right in this belief. They are being guided by the evidence. This will create a more effective and integrated health system, benefiting patients, staff and the community for decades to come. Now, I do understand that there are concerns held by staff at Calvary and by some patients and hospital administrators as to the nature of the transition. I want to assure you that in particular the ACT's mental health minister, Emma Davidson, is committed to ensuring that staff have the ability to go to work on the day of the transition in the same team with the same manager in the same building and keep their workplace and pay conditions. This is something to which the minister is absolutely committed. Such individuals are also being encouraged to make use of the CHS info kiosk at the Calvary Centre to raise their concerns and also to make use of the hotlines that have been created to talk through what this will mean for people.

I've had the very great pleasure to work with Minister Davidson personally for years. She is a human being of integrity and of extraordinary intelligence and determination. I have every faith that every fibre of her being and every inch of capacity in her office is being put to work to enable this transition to be the success that the ACT needs it to be. Concerns held by the community should be openly shared with political representatives. That's their job. And the appropriate role of political representatives from the other side of parliament is to encourage those members of the community to reach out and to engage with the government in the ways that have been offered.

Finally, I would just make this observation: the ACT Liberal Party—that moribund and inept organisation which, for many decades now, has completely failed to win the support of Canberrans to govern the territory—could learn a lot, I think, from the example being given to them by the Greens in the government, in the way that they are ensuring that the public health needs of Canberrans are centred. Rather than endlessly entering the Assembly with nonsense motion after nonsense motion in a continual attempt to delude themselves into a sense of relevancy they no longer possess, they would be much better served taking their time and energy to sit down and think about who the hell they want to be in the context of the ACT Assembly, because they are no longer relevant to the vast majority of Canberrans.

This attempt to whip up a fear campaign in this community will not work. It will not give them the sense of purpose that they seek. I commend the ACT government, and Minister Davidson particularly, for the work that they are doing to create a better public health system for Canberrans.