Page 2592 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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Royal Canberra are wonderful, as are all our nursing staff throughout Canberra. They are under the most terrible strain, which has been beaten up by Mr Humphries. This Government had the courage to make the decision on the Royal Canberra Hospital, and we have done the job.
Mr Humphries: You haven't done the job. You haven't even started to do the job.
MRS GRASSBY: Mr Humphries, we have done the job. You have not given the Minister a chance, as usual.
Mr Humphries: What job? He's had six months.
MRS GRASSBY: What you have done is to follow the usual British system - divide and rule. You think you have found something so you are going to ride on the pig's back. There is a very good saying, "Put a beggar on a horse's back and he'll ride to hell". So just be careful, Mr Humphries, you might find yourself up there. I congratulate Mr Berry on his wonderful job - - -
Mr Kaine: It is a long way from pigs to horses.
Mr Stefaniak: What happens if they see a ferret, Ellnor?
MRS GRASSBY: You never can tell. There are lots of ferrets, I think. Mr Humphries has been ferreting around, but he cannot find anything.
Mr Humphries: I have found lots, Minister.
MRS GRASSBY: Mr Kaine said virtually the same thing. I cannot agree with him, although at least I could see more sense in Mr Kaine's speech than I could in Mr Humphries' speech. I thought it was just a ferreting-around speech.
Mr Kaine: My speeches are always sensible and reasonable.
MRS GRASSBY: Of course they are, Mr Kaine. That is why you are Leader of the Opposition and Mr Humphries is not.
Mr Collaery: Divide and rule. See, you are doing what you just accused him of.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Please stick to the debate, Minister Grassby.
MRS GRASSBY: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your protection.
I would like to congratulate the Minister, Mr Berry, on what he has been able to do. It has been a very difficult job. As I said, we have inherited a run-down, badly built hospital. Anybody else would have said, "That's it. Let's put the bulldozer through it". We have made a hard decision - we will bring it into the year 2000 as a well-run hospital - under very hard conditions, and we have to find $2.5m that we should be given by the Federal Government.
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