'A pretty dramatic whack': Zed Seselja questions Calvary Hospital takeover legality

The ex-leader of the Canberra Liberals, who lost his Senate seat in the May federal election to independent senator David Pocock, said there was "a real question mark" about the legality of the move, adding "it's hard to see" how it doesn't end up in the High Court.

The Canberra Liberals have strongly opposed the move, with acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson saying it could create a precedent for further takeovers.

Legislation is expected to pass the territory's parliament next week and Calvary Public Hospital Bruce will be officially taken over by Canberra Health Services on July 3.

The government announced in May it was forced to take the drastic step of compulsory acquisition after negotiations with the Little Company of Mary, the Catholic organisation that runs Calvary, broke down.

The ACT government has repeatedly said the move to acquire Calvary has nothing to do with religion.

Breaking his silence on the takeover, Mr Seselja said the ACT government's decision lacked due process.

"Well, it's obviously a pretty dramatic whack against both people of the religious faith, people of Catholic faith, in this case, but also on property rights," he told The Canberra Times.

"I think that there will be a lot of Canberrans, whether they be Catholic or otherwise, who would look at this and think, 'well, if they can do it to Calvary Hospital without due process, can they do it to a club? Can they do it to my business? Can they do it to my home?

"I think there needs to be due process ... if you're going to seize property.

"Our constitution has that very clearly in it. The Self-Government Act has that very clearly in it. And I think there's a real question mark about whether this complies with either."

The bill was only introduced into the Assembly two weeks ago, just one day after the government publicly announced their plans.

The government said the acquisition would create a more integrated healthcare system. It would also allow the government to start work on a new $1 billion hospital for Canberra's north.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, while she was a Labor chief minister in 2010, said the move "would cause a lot of conflict" and "put the system into disarray".

Mr Seselja said it seemed Chief Minister Andrew Barr thought he can "run roughshod" after two decades of successive Labor governments in the territory.

"Maybe it's the result of several more years of government, which has made them more arrogant, more complacent, I could only put it down to that," he said.

"I think Katy Gallagher was right at the time. And I think maybe Andrew Barr has made the assessment that he's been in so long that he can run roughshod.

"I think it's hard to see that this doesn't end up in the High Court at some point."

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The government had initially been in discussions with the government around their role in the future northside hospital but negotiations were brought to a halt over disagreement around the length of a services agreement between Calvary and the ACT government.

Calvary has called for negotiations to recommence with the government.

Acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson likened the ACT government's decision to a dictatorship in an opinion piece for The Canberra Times.

"Because once a government starts behaving like a dictatorship, history shows us, they seldom stop," he wrote.

Mr Hanson attended a protest at the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday against the move. The protest was held by the Australian Christian Lobby.

An individual at the protest was seen handing around offensive material containing homophobic content.

Mr Hanson said he had no knowledge of the individual and did not agree nor endorse the pamphlet's content.

"Today I attended a protest at the Legislative Assembly with a number of people protesting against the compulsory acquisition of Calvary Hospital," Mr Hanson said in a statement.

"During the protest, I had no knowledge of an individual handing out material and I do not agree with or endorse the content that this one person was handing around.

"This is a disingenuous attempt by members of Labor and the Greens to use the actions of one person at the protest to deflect from their disgraceful takeover of Calvary Hospital."

Mr Barr responded on social media, describing it as the "same old Liberals".

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