The Gungahlin Community Council questions the recent policy announcement by the ACT Liberals that they intend to spend $20 million on GP clinics across three town centres.

Is this announcement intended to supplement the $18 million that the ACT Government has already allocated to construct a community health clinic in the Gungahlin town centre or is it intended to replace it? The announcement from the Liberals has created confusion and concern.

The current government has allocated $18 million for a single facility in the Gungahlin town centre - are the Liberals through this election policy suggesting that they would only spend a third of this amount on health facilities for the Gungahlin region, effectively short-changing the local region?

We have Liberal candidates and MLAs regularly attending our meetings, and yet we get a seemingly random policy announcement such as this. If these individuals were to engage with the GCC prior to making these sorts of announcements, we could guide them with solutions that would be most beneficial for the local community as a whole.

Likewise, details for the ACT Government's community health clinic proposal are yet to find their way out of the Health Minister's department, despite a number of attempts by us to clarify the intent of the project.

The Gungahlin Community Council has been strongly advocating that the community health clinic be expanded to a full 'day hospital' to service the Gungahlin region and its anticipated ultimate population of 100,000 residents. Such a facility could provide rooms for specialists and GPs, local day surgery, and the opportunity to implement an Accident and Casualty ward, taking the pressure off the other two Canberra hospitals. GCC have also suggested careful site selection for the clinic to allow for it to expand with the region's rapidly growing population.

Clearly some of the parties have got the message leading into this election that years of community infrastructure neglect have left a major shortfall still to be caught up. There are votes to be won or lost in Gungahlin for candidates with well-thought out proposals, rather than piecemeal announcements made on the run.

GCC has an holistic vision for the health facilities in our community, and we are more than willing to meet with any candidate or party to help them formulate clear policy solutions that will benefit the local community.