Andrew Barr says ACT government will 'correct' Calvary takeover bill if found court finds it is not valid

Mr Barr also described the Commonwealth's decision to have Calvary operate a public hospital in the territory as poor.

"We inherited a poor decision from the Fraser government in 1970s," he said on ABC radio.

"There was no territory government, there was no one arguing on the side of territory taxpayers at that point in time and so this issue has been around for quite some time."

The ACT Supreme Court is hearing an application for an injunction on the government's planned compulsory acquisition of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. The hearing is expected to go all day on Wednesday.

It is being heard before a full bench and the judges will have to confer before reaching a decision. A decision may not be known on Wednesday.

Calvary has argued "just terms" are not available in the government's bill, which says the organisation would be paid compensation based on "just terms".

The terms do not have to be agreed to before the acquisition and the government's law has said "just terms" would be decided by regulation - in other words it would be decided by officials.

Mr Barr, who has remained largely out of the debate, said if the court were to find something wrong with the legislation the government would change this.

"If the court were to find an error of law then we would correct the error of law that they had identified," he said.

The Legislative Assembly passed the acquisition legislation last week and the formal date of the takeover is set for July 3.

The government has said the decision has been made to start planning for a new $1 billion northside hospital to be built on the Bruce site. The government had previously been in negotiations with Calvary over the new hospital.

MORE CALVARY TAKEOVER NEWS:

Calvary has 76 years remaining on an agreement with the government to deliver a public hospital service to the ACT. The government offered Calvary a new 25-year agreement last year as part of negotiations but the organisation turned this down.

Mr Barr said the government had explored other options in Canberra's north for a new hospital but the Bruce site was determined to be the best site.

"Following an extensive analysis of best possible sites and best possible methods to do so the current hospital site is the best location to service north Canberra, Gungahlin and Belconnen," he said.

"It is capable of supporting a hospital as it already does and what the government is proposing is that we will build a new hospital and keep the current one running until the new one is open and that will be for the rest of this decade."

The territory had previously sought to purchase Calvary and secured a $77 million deal with the Little Company of Mary, the organisation that runs Calvary, in 2010 to buy the Bruce hospital. However, this was scuttled by the Vatican's approval processes.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.