Father Tony Percy takes on ACT government over Calvary Hospital Bruce takeover

Or maybe levelling the Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre in Florey to make way for some urban infill we can all enjoy.

Or perhaps taking over the Jewish Memorial Centre in Forrest for a new medical centre for the inner-south.

The government wouldn't dare. And nor should it take any of these dramatic steps.

Those tongue-in-cheek examples simply illustrate the staggering levels of hypocrisy being employed by the ACT government to justify its hostile takeover of the Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, even working to pass a new law to ensure the compulsory acquisition by July 3.

That's despite the Little Company of Mary Health Care signing an agreement in 1971 with the Commonwealth to operate the hospital, which opened in Bruce in 1979. And also despite the current agreement between the ACT government and the Little Company of Mary Health Care still having another 76 years to run.

Not a problem for the Barr Labor government which will get what it wants - a new $1 billion hospital on the Calvary site - by unilaterally creating a new law, no doubt supported by the Greens.

The government and Chief Minister Andrew Barr denies religion is a factor in the acquisition.

When asked if he had a problem with Catholics or Catholicism, Mr Barr responded through a spokesperson:

"The Chief Minister strongly believes everyone is equal before the law and is entitled to the equal protection of the law without discrimination. In particular, everyone has the right to equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground," the statement read.

"Everyone also has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief and the freedom to demonstrate that religion or belief.

"This right also includes the right not to adopt a religion or belief."

But it seems, at the very least, facilities run by Christians, let's get real - Catholics - are fair game. If the hospital was run by an organisation rooted in the Islamic or Jewish or Hindu or any other faith, the government wouldn't have moved and would have let the agreement stay. It is just too right on to attempt that.

A new northside hospital sounds good but why not build it in the heart of the fast-growing Gungahlin where a new hospital would undoubtedly be welcomed and would provide another option for people to work where they live?

The one high point of the Calvary takeover has been the emergence of true grassroots leadership by the local Catholic community, used to having to turn the other cheek when under attack.

This has been most evident in the beautifully bolshie form of local priest Father Tony Percy, who came out swinging against the compulsory acquisition of Calvary.

"We will not be lying down. The government has got a fight on its hands," Father Tony declared.

The Save Calvary Hospital campaign has a petition to stop the acquisition, saying the actions by the ACT government are "an abuse of property rights and religious freedom".

Father Tony says the government will simply overspend on a new hospital it will ultimately not run properly. He says any religious argument is a moot point because neither Calvary nor Canberra hospitals perform abortions. Let Calvary upgrade at a lower cost for a better result, he argues.

The Save Calvary campaign also fears "that the government will target other faith, welfare and community groups without consultation".

"Who's next? Clare Holland House? Most likely. One of the most revered institutions in Canberra. They live under the umbrella of Calvary. So the government will be sighting them," Father Tony said. Hyperbolic, perhaps, but also effective.

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In 2021, Father Tony also showed great leadership opposing the government's "draconian" lockdown laws, even being visited by the police after mass, which he conducted for only 10 socially-distanced parishioners.

While, in hindsight, lockdowns are now on the nose, in the midst of the pandemic it took a brave soul to stand up to authority.

We need more people like Father Tony who have the backbone to call out the government's Orwellian actions.

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