Mr MICHAEL REGAN (Wakehurst) (12:08): My question is directed to the Minister for Health. Will the Minister update Northern Beaches Hospital staff and their representatives on how they will be kept informed regarding the future operation of the hospital? The staff and the broader community need assurances that errors of the past will be avoided.

Mr RYAN PARK (Keira—Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Health, and Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast) (12:08): That is another outstanding question from an outstanding advocate for his community. The communities of the member for Wakehurst and member for Pittwater are going through a difficult period. It is a very clear warning for this and future parliaments that the privatisation of acute public health services is something that should be avoided at all costs. What that model of privatisation has done for the people of the northern beaches is, in my view, catastrophic because we are now in an appalling situation where we are not even dealing with a healthcare provider but with receivers. It is incredible that, because of the decisions of the former Government, we are now dealing with receivers to work through a complex contractual arrangement for the provision of public health care for the people of the northern beaches.

I want members to stop for a moment and have a think about that proposition. It is absolutely appalling that we are in that situation as a government, as a Parliament and as a community, and that the people of the northern beaches represented by the member for Wakehurst and the member for Pittwater are in that situation. It is a strong warning to all members as legislators. That model could have been rolled out to five hospitals, including in my own broader community in Shellharbour, which the member for Shellharbour, the member for Wollongong and I fought very hard to stop alongside working men and women in the community. That could have been rolled out across five hospitals in New South Wales.

We are now working with NSW Treasury, NSW Health and the receiver, McGrathNicol. We are meeting every other day. I gave assurances to the member for Wakehurst and the member for Pittwater, but even more importantly to the community, that I would open channels up to workers and their representatives. The CEO of the Northern Sydney Local Health District, Adjunct Professor Anthony Schembri, has started formal negotiation discussions and dialogue with that workforce. [Extension of time]

I want the member for Wakehurst and his community to know that both Anthony Schembri and his team and I, on multiple occasions, have met with the medical staff council, the Health Services Union and the Nurses and Midwives' Association. I have made it clear to the transition team in the Northern Sydney Local Health District that should we go down a path of essentially taking this hospital back—in incredible circumstances, and in what is going to be an incredibly complex financial arrangement and operational arrangement, to be blunt—and we are able to land that, then the dialogue that we have now and the dialogue that is ongoing with staff is absolutely critical to ensure we can improve the delivery of health care for the member for Wakehurst's community. That is absolutely at the forefront of all of the work that the Treasurer and I are doing right now.

Of course, there are the complex contractual arrangements and the financial arrangements around who has put in what et cetera. Yes, that is important, but at the heart of this is the delivery of improved health care for the people of the northern beaches. At the heart of this is a very big lesson for every single person in this place and, I hope, every single parliament that follows: The privatisation of public health services must stop. It is a failure. It was never going to work. It is not going to work. We are now spending hundreds and hundreds of hours trying to work through a complex negotiation and contractual arrangement, not with a healthcare company or a healthcare provider but with a receiver. That does not make sense, and it is a stark warning to that mob on the opposition benches. The privatisation of public health services has to stop. It is an ideology that does not work and that is hurting the people of the northern beaches.