Page 1002 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 1990
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Mr Jensen: Give us the quote.
MR BERRY: There will be a shift to private beds in the private sector.
Mr Humphries: There will be a shift in emphasis, but there will be creation - - -
MR BERRY: That is right, a shift - you are a pretty shifty lot. We can expect that from you. You see, it is all done behind closed doors. Government members talk about a shift. They know a fair bit about being shifty. The fact is that women in the ACT are a wake-up to these conservatives opposite and they know that obstetric services will be damaged wherever they get their hands on them. It is a great pity that the Residents Rally faction and the No Self Government faction have been fooled by the Liberal Health Minister into supporting such a retrograde step. They have been conned, and I just refer back to my earlier words about those people being shifty.
The short-sighted granting of approval for obstetric beds at John James would leave training programs for both the nursing profession and the medical profession in doubt. I just raise this issue with you, Mr Humphries. If, as you allege, the public beds are barely utilised, how are you going to be able to convince anybody in business to open up private beds if there is not a bob in it?
Mr Humphries: They want to do it now. They have asked for the beds. There is an application on my desk right now.
MR BERRY: That is right and it was knocked back before for the very reasons that I have explained, that it would affect the delivery of the public obstetric services. That will happen in the long run. It is quite clear.
Mr Kaine: For the better.
MR BERRY: It will affect it for the better for the rich, that is for sure, because the people who have private insurance and who can afford to go into private hospitals will do so. They will be better off. But that is always the case with Liberal Party philosophy, there is nothing new in that at all. We can always predict that the Liberals will take that line. It is clear that there is no conscience amongst the Liberals. That is commendable, but the other people in the Government do not know what is going on. That is the disappointing part about it. You have snowed them. Congratulations to you on that - it was a great piece of work. Those people are not very bright, I know, but the fact is that they have been snowed.
Essentially, what this boils down to is that as time passes there will be fewer options for women in the ACT in relation to birth. As I said in my opening remarks, these women are already disadvantaged in relation to women in other States and this needs to be addressed. But to
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