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| Get set for fireworks |
7-Jun-2007 |
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After a fierce election fight, Perth GP Dr Rosanna Capolingua secured an upset victory in this year
’
s AMA presidential election. By Paul Smith
DR CAPOLINGUA AT A GLANCE:
* GP in Floreat,
Perth
* Age: 48
* Three children, all doctors or medical students
* 1983: MBBS -- graduated from the
University
of
WA
* 1998-2000:
AMA
WA
president
* 2005-07: AMA federal treasurer
* 2007-: AMA federal president
‘BUT I had a plan for the AMA, a year plan.” Dr Choong-Siew Yong is standing at the back of the conference hall in the shadows. He’s shaking his head, speaking to no one in particular. He’s taking in the news that he has lost his battle to become AMA president by less than 20 votes. Then he gathers himself. “Look,” he says to me. “If you didn’t hurt it would mean that you never thought this was important, and no one thinks that.”
Six months ago Dr Yong, a Sydney-based psychiatrist, could have felt with some certainty that such a moment of defeat was only the dimmest of possibilities. He had spent two years doing the right thing, serving as vice-president. There had been no blunders, no media embarrassments and there was no crisis issue dominating the headlines that would cause challengers to line up against him.
But then the Perth whirlwind arrived. Dr Rosanna Capolingua announced her candidacy and things became complicated. Her victory last week was not a complete shock — her profile was big enough — but she still covered a lot of ground in a short space of time backed by some of the wheeler-dealers inside the AMA WA machine.
Amid the five-star swank of Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, this year’s AMA national conference was the scene of a fierce election fight that sometimes veered towards rumour, innuendo and back-biting, with both sides lobbying for either the heart or mind of the 157 delegates who had turned up to cast their vote.
Dr Yong was sold as a safe pair of hands — the negotiator, the quiet achiever who would offer continuity to the organisation after its two years under the ever-popular Dr Mukesh Haikerwal. Dr Capolingua was vociferous and had a fiery personality, yes, but she was a straight-talker who would look governments in the eye and tell them when enough was enough.
It looked as though these respective styles would be the substance of the campaign. But during the conference there were plenty of sources willing to give a journalist their insight into what was going on below the surface (strictly off the record of course).
A typical conversation would go like this: “Who’s going to win then?”
“It’s close, very close.”
“So, do you think Rosanna might sneak it?”
“Rosanna will be good with the media. She’ll stir things up. But the AMA federal office in Canberra, they won’t know what to do with her. They will worry she won’t keep to the script. You know, a loose cannon. Four Corners, remember.”
Four Corners was mentioned more than once. Dr Capolingua appeared last month on an episode of the prime-time ABC show that examined allegations that elderly people were illegally manufacturing euthanasia pills — Nembutal — in backyard laboratories so they could chose the time and place of their own dying.
As AMA ethics committee chairwoman, Dr Capolingua talked about the need to support people, to give them a sense that suicide was not the answer. She also talked about the vulnerability of the elderly people, many of whom simply felt their lives were a burden to the families looking after them.
But she was also asked by Four
Corners about whether those manufacturing the “death pills” should be prosecuted. She said: “If people break the law they are prosecuted. Those, that’s what happens, so yes indeed. If I break the law I should be prosecuted. That’s the law of the land and that’s the way it goes.”
At the conference, this stance fuelled rumours that Dr Capolingua’s Catholic faith would interfere with her advocacy as AMA president — a suggestion she has always rubbished.
The day before the big vote, conference delegates had a chance to assess the candidates’ styles in action.
Dr Capolingua chaired a discussion on private sector hospitals being used to provide specialist clinical training for the coming hordes of medical graduates unleashed by the universities. It was a hot topic and she fizzed with energy, playing the audience with skill and prepared to give out a good-humoured handbagging when required.
One delegate who rose to ask the discussion panel a question made the mistake of taking too long. “Could you shut up, Bernard,” Dr Capolingua said from the platform. Bernard stopped talking and closed his mouth.
“It’s okay,” she said, turning to the rest of us, “he’s my friend.”
Later that afternoon, Dr Yong took centre stage —chairing a discussion about Australia’s role in world health. The tone was different. Perhaps it was the worthy subject matter. Dr Yong was polite throughout and unobtrusive. There was little fuss. There were no cheeky rebukes.
The evening’s gala dinner got under way a few hours later and, once the awards had been handed out and the tributes paid to outgoing president Dr Haikerwal, the informal fringe meetings started again, this time mixed with a little alcohol.
“You can never tell if the buggers are telling you the truth,” one of the Yong team said, after walking away from another ‘little chat’ with a delegate apparently offering his unstinting support and loyalty.
By the morning, when the ballots were in, less than 20 votes divided the candidates. There was a buzz of excitement around Dr Capolingua. And in Dr Yong’s camp faces of resignation as they realised the mammoth efforts of the preceding days had been in vain. Within an hour, the TV crews arrived at the hotel and the newspaper photographers moved in demanding their five minutes with Dr Capolingua to take the victory pictures.
It was a taste of the incessant media demands she will face as the AMA’s leader over the coming 12 months.
What happens next is perhaps the only important question now. In her first interviews as president she expressed her determination to put health back at the forefront of the political agenda in an election year that has been dominated by rows about industrial relations, the environment and education.
On the general practice front, the AMA has been in meetings with the RACGP to revamp that old policy warhorse — the seven-tier item restructure — for another push at the coming federal election. Dr Capolingua admitted the inevitable complexities, combined with an incumbent government that has repeatedly said no to the idea, make a restructure a hard sell.
In one of that day’s interviews, I asked her about the Australian General Practice Network. Her answer —don’t expect an outbreak of peace and harmony any time soon.
“The AGPN is not representative of grassroots general practice,” she said. “It runs its own agenda. It’s not listening to general practice. General practice has said it’s not interested in fundholding, but because that model gives the AGPN money and power they want to take us down this path.
“There’s an awful lot of health dollars going into that particular organisation and there is no evidence that it delivers any benefits to health, as far as I can see. If the government decided that organisation no longer needed to exist, I don’t think Australians would suffer.”
The final question was whether she considered herself a loose cannon.
“I’m here for the AMA, to push AMA policy, and I’m here for the profession. I am part of that, not a separate entity. I fully intend to run my ship as a team, as I did as WA AMA president. I think the claims that I don’t hold the party line was an attempt to denigrate the fact that I’m not afraid to lead and be strong and draw a line in the sand when necessary. But I will do that with the whole of the AMA behind me.”
I went back to my Four
Corners man for the updated gossip. What did he think, he must be sceptical?
“She’s going to bring passion to the portfolio, drive the issues forward. I think she is going to be a great voice for the organisation.”
I was expecting him to wink as he said this. He didn’t. The AMA — one of Australia’s most effective lobby groups. It didn’t get there by making its internal power struggles public.
For the time being it will be back to a united front.
More:
Dr Haikerwal says farewell
Dr Capolingua
’
s first
Australian Doctor
column
:‘Pump up the volume’
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