Calvary Hospital takeover smells to high heaven of ideology

The attempt by the ACT government to forcibly acquire the hospital is now a matter of national significance.

The ACT government has had Calvary in ‘its sights for a long time’.

The attempt by the ACT government to forcibly acquire Calvary Hospital is now a matter of national significance. Anthony Albanese may deny that the attempted takeover of a major Catholic public hospital by government fiat is a significant precedent, but the fact is many in healthcare, welfare and the general community do see it as just such a precedent.

His statement denying the forced acquisition is a precedent is also seen by many Catholics and others interested in freedom of religion and the rule of law as, frankly, a cop-out from a Prime Minister who often has cited the influence of the Catholic Church in health, welfare and education – including his own.

The Health Infrastructure Enabling Bill 2023 passed this week sets aside the previous Lands Acquisition Act 1994 so the ACT government can acquire the whole of Calvary’s public hospital enterprise, its land, the public hospital assets and other rights that Calvary has under the lease, ignoring just terms. It is basically tearing up a lease that had 76 years to run.

It will be challenged in the ACT Supreme Court on commercial legal grounds, but Calvary Health Care chief executive Martin Bowles has said, “All we have is an announcement and an imposed unrealistic timeline that has distressed our people and could ultimately put clinical safety at risk.”

Canberra does need a second hospital. The main hospital at Woden is understaffed and has many documented problems, so naturally the population is confused and alarmed by this move. However, there is a growing level of suspicion that the reason behind this forced acquisition is fundamentally ideological. In other words, the Barr government wants to buy Calvary Hospital not simply because it wants to improve healthcare in the capital and certainly not to save money, because it intends pulling down the hospital to build another. No, the notoriously green-left ACT Labor government wants to get the Catholic Church out of public healthcare.

However, three questions arise. Why does the Barr government want to do this now? Does the ACT government want to take over other faith-based institutions? And is this a precedent in other states and territories?

The ACT government has had Calvary in its sights for a long time, and it made no bones about the ideology behind its desire to own it. A 2005 report chaired by then Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker recommended buying the hospital, stressing the unavailability of elective abortion at Calvary, as in any public hospital.

By 2010 under Jon Stanhope and Katy Gallagher the government tried again, this time threatening to starve the hospital of funds, making it clear that Calvary Bruce would not be the recipient of any significant capital funds while ever it was outside of government ownership and threatening to respond “aggressively” to any “save the Catholic hospital” campaign.

More recently, the abortion theme was raised yet again, this time calling the Catholic ethics of the hospital “problematic”. With this background it is no wonder that Bowles, who joined Calvary in 2017, characterised the relationship with the government as “strained”. However, under Bowles the relationship seemed to have been repaired.

So why do this now? Here are two reasons. First, the Labor-Greens government has been in power for 23 years. They are unassailable. What is more, the ACT government is even more Green than it was in 2010. There are six Greens in the government and they basically hold the balance of power, so they are emboldened to pursue their entire ideological agenda. The territory is a social laboratory that has enacted a list of firsts in various causes: gay marriage, pro-trans legislation, legislation aimed at Catholic schools – especially the sacrament of penance – free abortion, and of course euthanasia is to be legal. However, it cannot be performed in a Catholic hospital – so go figure.

This brings me to the second question about other institutions that the government might covet. Many people in the ACT are worried about the hospice Clare Holland House, a Catholic institution. If previous experience is any guide the ACT government will make it very difficult for this to continue into the future as a Catholic institution since active euthanasia (as distinct from allowing people to die without excessive treatment) is not permitted in a Catholic hospice.

Also, there are Catholic aged-care, and welfare services and a large number of private Christian schools and Catholic parochial schools in Canberra, all trying to navigate the introduction of various social ideologies, as in Victoria.

So, the question remains: can the Calvary takeover provide a precedent for future jurisdictions? I think you will find the answer is yes indeed it does, especially after euthanasia.

However, this takeover has shown that the Barr government is less concerned about the practical effect on the ordinary people of the territory than its obsession with power and enacting its green-left ideology. The most devastating precedent this episode provides is for a future in which religion, even its charitable mission to all people, is relegated to the private sphere, bluntly told that it doesn’t belong in the public square, as is happening in the ACT.