The controversial Health Infrastructure Enabling Bill 2023 – the bill that will allow the ACT Government to compulsorily acquire the site of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, and transition the hospital’s employees, assets, and services to Canberra Health Services – has just passed the Legislative Assembly.
This morning, protesters for and against the bill gathered in Civic Square, outside the Assembly.
Most were against the acquisition. A small crowd, at least 35 people, largely Christians, carried banners demanding that the government “Stop Soviet style land grab!”, “Leave Calvary alone!”, and “Save Calvary Hospital!”.
A couple of counter-protesters, however, welcomed the acquisition. Their placards read: “Thank God for Rachel S-S [Stephen-Smith, health minister]. Public health in public hands.” “Catholics have no right to decide our / my health rights. Thanks, ACT Government.”
- Calvary takeover bill introduced to ACT Assembly (11 May)
- ACT government claims Calvary negotiations failed (11 May)
‘No’ protesters oppose “attack on faith”
“This is just an incredible thing that’s happening in Australia, our nation, because this is completely undemocratic,” said the protest’s organiser, Wendy Francis, the Australian Christian Lobby’s acting managing director and national director for politics.
“It seems obvious, certainly to us, that this is an attack on faith.”
The ACT Government, Ms Francis said, had not consulted Calvary, or given them any opportunity to pre-plan. (Calvary’s CEO, Martin Bowles, has said the organisation received no correspondence from the ACT Government for six months, until they told him, two days before the public announcement, that they would introduce the bill. Calvary doctors are also angry the government did not consult them about the acquisition.)
- Calvary threatens legal action unless bill debate is adjourned (30 May)
- Calvary: Negotiations with ACT or legal options (24 May)
- AMA: ACT Government ignored Calvary doctors (22 May)
- Nurses write open letter re acquisition of Calvary Public Hospital (27 May)
Then the ACT Government suspended debate, Committee hearings, and inquiries. (When Ms Stephen-Smith introduced the bill, on 11 May, the Assembly agreed to debate the Bill before any committee inquiry or report, except for the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety in its Legislative Scrutiny role.)
“The public hospital run by the government here has not got a good reputation,” Ms Francis said. “Calvary Hospital has an excellent reputation. On top of that, the amount of money that is being spent by the government to do this takeover. We’ve got about 100 consultants being paid. We’ve had months of people being paid to even formulate this plan. All of that money could go to actually remove people from waiting lists….
“They’re spending millions of dollars on consultants and people to try to spin their web of being able to take over this hospital. Why on earth are they doing it? It’s beyond me, to be honest.”
But one reason, she suspects, is because the ACT Government objects to Calvary’s stance on abortion.
“They are proving themselves anti-faith by saying that because of faith, this hospital is pro-life,” Ms Francis said. “The government is saying that that is an ideological problem.”
Calvary Public Hospital only provides abortion services in cases of emergency. A recent government Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice in the ACT found it “problematic that one of the ACT’s major hospitals is, due to an overriding religious ethos, restricted to the services that can be delivered to the Canberra community… The ACT Government needs to address … an ethically fraught dependence on the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary for provision of health services.”
“Abortions aren’t even happening in the government-run hospital at the moment, either,” Ms Francis said.
Canberra Public Hospital only performs abortions in cases of severe foetal abnormality. The Centenary Hospital for Women and Children performs abortion, including post-16 weeks gestation, only in cases of foetal abnormality or severe maternal morbidity.
“So it seems very unusual that they would demand for the Calvary Hospital to not only take on abortion, but also to agree to euthanise people when that comes in,” Ms Francis said.
The ACT Government’s “problem with faith”, Ms Francis believes, puts them at odds with the community.
“Well over 60 per cent of Australians identify as being of faith, so they are completely out of step with Australians,” she said. “Of that over 60 per cent, probably over 52 per cent identify as Christian.”
According to the 2021 census, 93.1 per cent of respondents answered the religious affiliation question, 38.9 per cent of those declared they had no religion (therefore 61.1 per cent were religious), and 43.9 per cent were Christian.
“But it’s not only Christian people who are concerned about the Calvary Hospital,” Ms Francis said. “The Muslims are speaking out about it. The Sikhs are speaking out about it. These are people who understand that freedom of faith is at risk in our country.”
The protesters were “a very mixed group”, Ms Francis said.
“We have a lot of Catholic people here today. In previous protests, we’ve had people from the hospital themselves. But we have Protestants. We have people who are not of faith, people who have walked into Calvary Hospital, and found the care that they want – being treated as a human being, rather than sometimes in a public government-run hospital, as just another number. In the Calvary Hospital, they found real compassion and care. So we have people here completely not of faith, who still want to save Calvary Hospital.”
Ms Francis said her group had called on Ms Stephen-Smith to speak to them. “I’ve tried to get an appointment, and I’ve been told that appointment won’t be for weeks yet, so when it’s all done and dusted.
“But a number of the Liberal MLAs have come down and spoken to us, and also attended a public Town Hall meeting that we held. So they’ve been very supportive.”
Ms Francis said the protesters will keep pressure on the ACT Government “right up to the election so that they remember what they’ve done”.
“The government seems determined not to listen to the protest, but we are listening to them, and we will not forget what is happening in there now,” she said.
The protesters, Ms Francis said, will also keep pressure on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whom she said has “completely trashed religious freedom”. Mr Albanese said this week that he supported the ACT Government’s acquisition of Calvary. Ms Francis said that she finds this move “completely inconsistent” with a rumoured religious discrimination bill later this year.
“We are committed to this fight,” Ms Francis concluded.
‘Yes’ supporters thank “brave” ACT Government for bringing Calvary into public domain
Anne-Marie Delahunt and Meg Clark believe the ACT Government’s acquisition of the hospital is a good thing.
“We were really happy when they made negotiations with the Catholics many years ago to turn [Calvary] into a proper public hospital with full government service and full health rights,” Ms Clark said.
In 2009, the ACT Government sought to buy the public hospital from Calvary, but the transfer agreement was never implemented.
“We were very upset when they brought in the whole powerful edifice of the Catholic structure to retain the hospital.
“So this is a second attempt to bring the hospital back into the public domain, where full health rights will be available.”
The two women live on the northside. “If we get sick, if we [need] emergency [treatment], the ambulance takes us to Calvary,” Ms Clark said. “It’s not a choice; you go to Calvary. So it if ends up being something which impeaches their religious views on appropriate health, it’s just not on. We want a full range of health. We want health to be decided by health practitioners, not religious people.”
“I’ve always felt that it’s wrong for the northside hospital [to be] Catholic,” Ms Delahunt said. “I firmly believe that if it’s taxpayers’ money, it should be a public health hospital… If there’s going to be a private Catholic hospital, I’m all for that, and there can be one. But why should my taxpayer’s money go to fund that?”
The public hospital, she argues, “should present the entire range of medical procedures that are available, and we shouldn’t have to fear.
“I have an older friend who was very ill, not a religious person at all, and she was in Calvary with crucifixes over her head. It’s just not the right thing for people to live with that.”
While some object to the ACT Government ending the Crown Lease for the hospital site, due to expire in 2098, 75 years early, Ms Clark thinks changing it is a good idea.
“Where in the hell anywhere else in the world does somebody say: I’ve got a contract that lasts for 75 years? It’s completely ludicrous.”
“The ACT Government is really brave to do this,” Ms Delahunt said. “Where the hospital is at the moment, where Calvary is, is a good place for a hospital to be.
“The Calvary building itself is coming to the end of its life,” she added.
Canberra Health Services states that Calvary Public Hospital will not be fit-for-purpose in the next decade. The hospital was built in the 1970s, and is a quarter the size of Canberra Hospital. The ACT Government states that by 2041, demand for hospital services will be more than double what Calvary delivers now, and capacity and infrastructure limitations would result in longer wait times for patients and an inefficient health service.
“I know what would happen in a few years’ time,” Ms Delahunt said. “If Calvary remained a Catholic hospital, they’d be putting their hands out to the government to rebuild their building for them – and that’s ridiculous.
“So I’m really pleased that we’re getting to this point, and I congratulate the ACT Government for being brave and standing their ground.”
