Page 857 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR BERRY: Your belief is extremely correct and spot-on, Mr Speaker.
MR HUMPHRIES: He is getting his run up done.
MR BERRY: That is right; I am beginning the run up - stating the dispute with the Canberra - - -
Mr Jensen: Preamble is not necessary.
MR BERRY: This is a very important question, Mr Jensen, and I think if you had any concern for those people in the community, you would be listening quietly.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Please proceed with the question, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: I am sorry, Mr Speaker. On four separate occasions, it was stated that the dispute with the Canberra ophthalmologists was nearly settled. I remember a handshaking ceremony out here with the President of the AMA. It was stated that it was nearly settled, and this therefore offered some hope to public patients on the long waiting list for surgery. How near is the dispute to settlement, so that the false hopes that the Minister's previous announcements created can be changed into reality and the funds provided by the Hawke and Follett Labor Governments can be put to the use intended?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I appreciate the analogy made by Mr Berry between the Labor Opposition and flushing out the Government, or, as he puts it - flushing out the Minister for Health. I have always thought of the Opposition in very similar terms to a dose of salts and this is really confirming my impression.
I have indicated in the past in answer to media enquiries that I expect an imminent resolution to the dispute with ophthalmologists; a dispute which was inherited by Mr Berry when he was Minister for Health and which he was totally unable to resolve in the seven months that he was in Government - completely and utterly unable to resolve.
I have had fruitful discussions with the Australian Medical Association and with individual ophthalmologists. I have visited one of their surgeries. I have had discussions with a number of them privately in an attempt to persuade them to rejoin the ACT's public hospital system and I am confident that I will shortly be able to announce the conclusive resolution of that dispute.
It is my opinion that the ACT hospital system needs at least five such ophthalmologists within our hospital system to provide for a decent public roster. There are, I understand, already three ophthalmologists who have signed contracts to that effect and I fully expect to receive at least two more in the coming days. When I have fully resolved the dispute, the dispute which has hung over our
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .