Calvary takeover cuts to heart of religious freedom

The iron grip of the Andrew Barr government on our Truman-like capital could slip as a local issue goes national.

The takeover of Calvary Public Hospital could well have ‘ramifications beyond local Canberra politics’. Picture: Facebook

Most Australians probably think of Canberra as a place apart from the rest of the nation. In many ways they are right.

Canberra is richer, younger, better educated and far less bothered by the grim realities of urban life plaguing most cities – even the traffic is better. So, in general, what happens in Canberra tends to stay in Canberra.

However, two issues have finally penetrated the public discourse outside Canberra: the Higgins-Lehrmann rape allegations and the inquiry into the ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions and police handling of the case, with its many political and cultural ramifications; and, more recently, the territory government’s takeover of the Catholic Calvary Public Hospital.

The precedent-setting, forced acquisition of the hospital has started to burst through the Canberra bubble with wider news coverage and moves for a Senate inquiry.

Both issues carry ideological baggage with wider long-term impacts for the nation, and it is no accident both started in Canberra.

One important point that people outside the territory should understand is that after 24 years in power the ACT government is supremely autocratic, entirely captured by the green left, as is its bureaucracy. After the DPP and police inquiry it is also clear there are concerns about the approach to the administration of justice.

Those seeking an injunction to delay the takeover of Calvary hospital were puzzled and disappointed by the bringing forward of the ACT Supreme Court’s decision – which found for the government – and the lack of detailed reasons for the decision. It was a decision that allowed the government to keep to its rushed deadline for the takeover and delayed access to the reasons, which made forming an appeal virtually impossible. If Calvary decides to go to a higher court, possibly the High Court, the underlying motivations and the wide ramifications for freedom of religion of the appropriation of a religious institution, could do much damage to the ACT government.

More important, it would be a blow to the federal Labor government and Anthony Albanese, who backed the ACT’s decision and denied the takeover set a precedent.

In the week that Calvary brought the Supreme Court injunction, and before the outcome was decided as the brouhaha had just begun to penetrate Canberra’s suburban idyll, the ACT government was busy implementing the hospital’s transition from Calvary Health Care to ACT Health.

ACT Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr releases the 2022-23 ACT budget. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, set in the ideal home town of Sea Haven.

Wasting no time to cover its deeper motivations with its usual gloss of civic virtue, it even published and distributed an illustrated pamphlet complete with trumpeting its plan to build the new hospital to replace Calvary. It obviously had confidence the court’s decision would be favourable for the takeover to proceed.

People living in Canberra are focused on the local issue, the takeover of a good public hospital when the main ACT-run hospital has a poor reputation, rather than the greater ideological ramification for freedom of religion.

Consequently, the question people ask is: Why do this? There are two main reasons, not all apparent to residents. First of all, we have an entrenched socialist-green government acting on the classic Big Brother government control playbook. They want to build the hospital and run it with the active support of the CFMEU for the building of the hospital. The first reaction to the proposed takeover was from the union, which put out a release demanding “bring in the bulldozers!”

Second, and more important, the government’s ideology is aridly secular and anti-faith. It does not want anybody with any religiously formed conscience to have a place in the public square.

Time and time again despite their denials, and the Prime Minister’s denial that it is a precedent, if one looks at the history of this, which goes back to 2010, it is easy to see that this is ideologically motivated by an anti-religion and anti-pluralist outlook masquerading as social progress.

Numerous reports have been produced to back the government’s view, with the only criticism of Calvary its Catholic ethos, especially with regards to abortion. This was obvious in 2010 during the first attempt by the ACT to take over Calvary. Katy Gallagher, then ACT health minister, tellingly stated that opposition to the proposed sale of Calvary at that time was being fuelled by outsiders “with a particular interest in religion in healthcare coming into our secular ACT health system”, as if Calvary Public Hospital was not already part of the “secular health system”. The implication of her remark was clear. She really didn’t think that Calvary should be part of the health system, despite being there before the ACT government even existed.

When people say that Canberra is unique, they are not exaggerating. The territory is run as an autocratic Labor-Greens fiefdom, hence the ability of the ACT government to simply pass laws to engineer things to its own desires, as it has with the appropriation of Calvary.

But despite high rates and taxes, and a looming gas crisis, there have been few issues that penetrate the Truman-like perfection that is Canberra, hence there is little desire to change the government. Nevertheless, the takeover of Calvary could well have ramifications beyond local Canberra politics, and possibly call into question the iron grip of the Andrew Barr government whose influence on an issue that could become a national ideological issue now seems to exceed its local dictatorial remit.