Page 1000 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the ACT by their private mates at the cost of the delivery of services in the public sector, mostly to women who cannot afford to pay medical insurance so that they can get access to private sector services. That is what this motion is about.
Mrs Nolan knows, she knows there is a quid in it, she is a business person. That is what this issue is about. Mr Duby knows too. He knows the value of a quid. But he is not admitting it here today because that is what this issue is about, services in the ACT. It is true that there are no obstetric beds in the private sector currently in the - - -
Mr Duby: Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Mr Jensen: You have misled the house.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Women are quite content with the public service. This rhetoric about increasing options is blarney, better suited to Mr Collaery, I might add, but it is nevertheless blarney because it is about lightening the options all right so that members of the private sector can increase their profits.
Unless there are more speakers in relation to the amendment, Mr Speaker, I will now reply to the debate in relation to the - - -
MR SPEAKER: I will just call attention to that. Are there any speakers from the Government side that have not spoken? Please proceed, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: As I said earlier, Mr Speaker, the focus by the Labor Party will be on the provision of certain services to the people who need the services, and not the carers. I know that there is a culture in the area of delivery of services which for some time has been dominated by the medical profession. There are sensitive issues to be dealt with as that culture changes, as it will change and as it has changed. I think Mr Humphries would agree with me that they are sensitive issues which have to be dealt with carefully.
That is not to say that the Labor Party is an anti-doctor party because it is not. It is quite the contrary, it is a pro-doctor party, but it is about the delivery of services. Mr Humphries also said that the Labor Party did not have a position in relation to a birthing centre. Well, that is a load of rubbish and he knows it.
Mr Humphries: There was no action.
MR BERRY: He knows it. He knows that there was action, too. The Labor Party's policy ensures that women will have control over their bodies through the provision of a birth
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .