Time to Accentuate the Positive
21 May 2005
Last Monday's State Cabinet held on the Sunshine Coast was
fascinating for me from a number of points of view: democracy at
work.
When I first came to Australia in 1976 meetings with politicians
and their most senior officers, on the scale that we witnessed last
week on the Coast, would have been unthinkable. Demonstrators are
now allowed to express openly their points of view. Thirty-two
years ago they ran the risk of imprisonment for such public
expressions of outrage or dissent. We have come a long way in that
respect as a State and the Premier can be thanked for much of
that.
Community Cabinets, whilst giving invaluable feedback to
Ministers and Director-Generals, must also demand huge commitments
of time away from family and friends. We are often cynical about
politicians, but public life must now have a huge impact on
individuals' lives and their personalities.
Many valuable initiatives and long-term plans were discussed
further by Cabinet, but the media interrogation focused on
controversy, conflict, resignations and so little on the positive
things. When it came to media coverage of the press conference that
evening, the main news stories were just 'grabs', often out of
context. Everyone knows that there is a crisis of confidence in the
health system, but for it to so disproportionately outweigh other
topics made me reflect on the power of the media in formulating our
views and our priorities. Few human beings could withstand the
confrontational questioning for very long without being adversely
affected one way or another.
For the University, the best news was the announcement by the
Premier that new private and public hospitals and a health hub will
be developed next to the University and Chancellor College.
The location of that health complex will have many advantages
for the community, the hospitals and the University. We have
opportunities now to scope the development of medical
specialisations with the hospitals growing in parallel with the
University's academic programs.
Health has been an increasingly important facet of the work of
our Science Faculty, and only a few weeks ago the Faculty was
renamed to include 'Health' and 'Education' in its new title.
Over the next few years, starting fairly soon, we shall be
examining those medical, paramedical and natural therapy fields
where there are expanding opportunities for graduate employment,
and then working with governments to secure long-term support.
The hospital complex is exactly the kind of initiative that
opens up new careers, more jobs, provides essential infrastructure
for the Coast, and provides impetus for the University's courses,
research activity and status to move to a new level.
A new Canadian university, the University of Northern British
Columbia, with which we often benchmark, already has a medical
faculty so they, and places like James Cook University and Griffith
University on the Gold Coast, will be studied as recent models of
how such academic areas of research and professional training can
be quickly but systematically advanced.
The hospital complex will also be a catalyst for an appropriate
road system and a town centre and technology laboratories linked
with University research.
It certainly is a positive initiative for addressing the State's
health problems, and it is a pity it did not gain at least as great
a prominence as these.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast.