"This represents the single largest investment in health infrastructure in our city's history."

This is the kind of announcement any government leader would love to make. A new hospital is the kind of infrastructure project almost everybody would get behind and very few would question the value for money.

But this announcement was different. The government's shiny new artist impressions barely received a second glance.

Because in order to build the hospital, the territory would be forcibly acquiring land and that land belongs to the Catholic Church.

The government's decision to forcibly acquire Calvary Public Hospital Bruce was met with shock. It was sudden and unexpected, especially as the government would move to take over the hospital in less than two months.

The final decision to compulsorily acquire the hospital was only made in the past week. Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told Calvary on Monday, it was announced publicly on Wednesday and on Thursday legislation was introduced to start the process.

The territory government will take control on July 3, bringing to an end a 44-year partnership with Calvary to operate a hospital in Canberra's north.

The government has said bringing the territory's public health system under one organisation will better integrate the health system.

"The only responsible decision we could take at this time as we plan to invest more than a billion dollars in a new hospital was to bring that hospital into public hands to have a single public hospital provider across the territory," Stephen-Smith said.

This decision has set into motion a messy battle that could potentially last years and cost millions.

Planning for a new hospital in Canberra's north has been under way for some time. The Bruce public hospital is dated and the buildings are reaching the end of their life.

The government and Calvary were locked in discussions last year about the way forward and the role the Catholic organisation would play in any future hospital.

Calvary, also known as Little Company of Mary, has operated the Bruce hospital since 1979. The Commonwealth government struck a deal with the Little Company of Mary in 1971 to construct and operate a hospital in Canberra's north. The land was gifted to the Little Company of Mary and the services at the hospital were solely funded by the government.

This was likely an ideal arrangement at the time as the federal government probably did not want the responsibility of managing two hospitals in Canberra.

Ten years after the deal between the Commonwealth and Calvary, self-government came to the ACT but the arrangement with Calvary stayed the same.

But in 2008 the government sought to change this arrangement and began negotiations with Calvary to transfer the ownership of the hospital. This was followed by two years of intense negotiations, which were ultimately unsuccessful. The government then entered into a new agreement for Calvary to continue delivering services.

That agreement became the subject of talks with Calvary in 2022. Calvary was keen to operate the new public northside hospital and the government wanted the hospital to be on Calvary's land.

Calvary national chief executive Martin Bowles said agreement was reached on a number of issues including the territory would hold the title to the land where the hospital was located and the ACT government would manage the construction of the project.

But the sticking point was the government wanted a new 25-year agreement with Calvary. The current agreement had 76 years remaining and Calvary was not happy with the shortened timeframe.

Calvary expressed this displeasure and it was clearly enough for the ACT government to choose the nuclear option. Compulsory acquisition.

The ACT government was at pains to say the decision had nothing to do with religion.

Barr wouldn't even entertain the thought when he was asked; "no" he simply responded.

It was an obvious question. The territory government is pursuing voluntary assisted dying laws and has recently announced a policy for free abortions. These are two areas of health care of which the Catholic Church is deeply opposed.

Stephen-Smith says the government commissions Catholic organisations for a range of areas, including for housing, alcohol and drug services and residential care services.

But even if religion did not play a role in the actual decision, the declining influence of the Catholic Church in modern Australia, especially in Canberra, would have made the decision much easier for the government than it would have been in 2010.

Thirteen years ago, the deal to buy Calvary was scuttled due to a lack of approval from the Vatican. The territory government could have chosen to launch a compulsory acquisition then but Katy Gallagher, who was the ACT health minister at the time, said this would have been a disaster.

Going up against the Vatican is no easy task. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the world's most influential and powerful organisations. They would have a lot in their arsenal, which would absolutely eclipse that of the ACT government.

In 2010, the territory was clearly not prepared or willing to take that on.

It's a different story in 2023.

Attitudes are different and the church does not hold the influence it once did in the Canberra community.

Just over 93,000 Canberrans, 26.1 per cent, identified as Catholic in the 2011 census but in the 2021 census this had declined to 87,566, 19.3 per cent of the population.

MORE CALVARY TAKEOVER NEWS:

The reputation of the Catholic Church has also taken a battering. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which was established in 2013, detailed horrifying stories of abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy.

The commission also showed how senior members of the Catholic Church had failed to appropriately respond to allegations of abuse and had covered this up.

The view of the church in the eyes of many Australians, Catholic and non-Catholic, has dimmed due to this.

Given the changing attitudes, the ACT government probably feels better prepared to take on the Catholic Church. Public opinion is an incredibly powerful weapon.

The forced acquisition of Calvary could potentially cost more than $100 million but for the government and some in the community that might just be a small price to pay.

But the political fallout is likely to drag on.

A week before the government announced the acquisition, the Canberra Liberals announced their first policy for health for next year's ACT election.

After months of hammering the government about the failures of the health system, acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson revealed the Liberals would establish a royal commission into the ACT health system.

Hanson actually called on the government to establish the commission but he knew this was never going to happen.

This call was dismissed by the government, Barr barely even addressed the call for a commission when he responded to a motion from Hanson in the Legislative Assembly.

The government was clearly focused on its announcement.

Plans for a new $1 billion hospital, so desperately needed for Canberra's north, is a vote winner. But the process to get there though would open the government up to criticism and a messy battle.

Hanson had an absolutely furious response to the forced acquisition, describing it as "outrageous thuggery" and he reaffirmed the call for a royal commission.

The acting Opposition Leader was particularly scathing of the fact the government's legislation to acquire the land would bypass normal procedures and not be subject to an inquiry before passing the parliament.

"This is a dictatorial-style stitch up," Hanson said in the Assembly.

Labor has a firm grip on power in the territory. They have been in government for more than 21 years, with support from the Greens. This longevity and the decision for a forced acquisition has left them open to accusations of being authoritarian.

"The lack of transparency of the ACT government raises several questions and concerns. It is a very sad day when governments can simply decide to mount a takeover of any enterprise without any justification," Archbishop Christopher Prowse said.

The government is incredibly confident, or some may say incredibly arrogant, about their grasp on power.

There is no doubt the $1 billion hospital will be a centrepiece of next year's election campaign, especially once news of the Calvary takeover has blown over.

Barr will be trumpeting the new northside hospital at every opportunity he can. He will say this is what a Labor government can deliver. He will be bolstered by the fact the new $600 million critical services building at Canberra Hospital is due to be completed in the months before the election.

Of course, he won't focus on the fact the building has been delayed but the opposition won't let him forget it.

There was a taste of what the next election will bring in the Assembly on Wednesday.

"The Canberra Liberals' record on hospitals is to blow them up. We have built four. We have either built or are building four hospitals, and those opposite have blown one up," Barr said.

The government's management of the Canberra Hospital and its many failures, especially its cultural issues, will be a key feature not only of the election campaign but throughout the forced acquisition.

At the centre of the conversation, at least publicly, are the 1800 staff at the Bruce hospital.

Staff at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce will receive a letter of transfer and will remain in their same roles and jobs. Most staff are already employed as public servants. A very small number of staff will not be offered jobs as they had previously been dismissed from Canberra Health Services.

"We want to send [Calvary staff] a message that we expect and we are aiming for a circumstance where they will be able to continue doing a same job, with the same team in the same hospital, continuing to deliver public health care to the people of Canberra and surrounding regions," Stephen-Smith said.

Stephen-Smith says the short timeframe for the acquisition was chosen to give staff certainty.

But the government fully expects some staff will not want to stay when it is taken over.

Canberra Hospital is infamous for its issues with culture.

Bowles says there were staff who had left Canberra Health Services to come and work at Calvary. He said Calvary would work with any staff who did not want to make the transition.

"There are cultural issues that have been well and truly in the media over the last couple of years ... there are many staff who have left Canberra Health Services and work for us," he said.

"We will work with anyone who doesn't wish to transfer, if that is their desire, we will work with them for what is possible.

"We've got a lot of opportunity to offer people roles if they don't wish to transfer but, of course, that's going to be limited at some point."

But Stephen-Smith says issues exist across the system. Calvary was included in a landmark 2019 report into culture in Canberra's public health system which found major issues with inappropriate behaviours, bullying and harassment in the workplace.

"It is absolutely clear from the culture review that we did in 2018 that culture issues existed across our entire public hospital system. Culture issues are not confined to Canberra Hospital or to Canberra Health Services," Stephen-Smith said.

"I absolutely sympathise with a number of staff who may have left Canberra Hospital or other parts of the health services a number of years ago and had a poor experience in terms of the culture in those organisations."

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