Page 3894 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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issue came before the Assembly last year when Mr Humphries developed an interest in the matter. On 27 September he raised the question about the staffing levels of ambulances and the provision of services. Amongst other things he said, "Does the Minister consider that there being as few as two crews on duty at particular periods in the ACT is satisfactory?". I assumed from that statement that he considered that it was not satisfactory.
Mr Humphries: What was your answer? He is avoiding it.
MR BERRY: The answer to that question, of course, contained some very valuable information and established the fact that a review was being taken up and that it had implications for the service's staffing numbers. The review, of course, was to involve the workers and their unions, and it was anticipated that the review would be finalised by December 1989. Then, of course, the events of December 1989 overtook us and the matter fell into the hands of Mr Humphries.
It seems, Mr Speaker, that Mr Humphries then lost interest in the issue. He was so busy doing a job on our schools and our hospitals that he seemed to lose interest in the Ambulance Service which he sought to take a few political points on earlier. Since then, of course, in our office we have been hearing constant complaints about the developing crisis in the Ambulance Service.
This leads us to the Estimates Committee, where I was able to raise a couple of relevant questions about the Ambulance Service, but to no avail. I asked Mr Humphries about the number of occasions on which four ambulances could not be fielded in the ACT. Mr Humphries, of course, failed - in fact, I think "refused" is the proper word - to provide that information. The information did not turn up to the Assembly after the first question, a second question had to be asked, and it was asked that the information be given in 24 hours. The Minister failed to live up to that expectation of the Estimates Committee and, when the information eventually lobbed at the Estimates Committee at the eleventh hour, it failed to give the details required to explain properly the predicament that the Ambulance
Service was in.
Mr Speaker, in terms of concerns about the Ambulance Service the flow of information peaked to a flood, and there are serious concerns about it. The answers have not been supplied. I have been given a range of information from sources close to the Ambulance Service which, whilst these may not be the Government's figures, point out the predicament of the Ambulance Service.
Mr Wood: These are the accurate figures.
MR BERRY: These are the figures from a source close to the Ambulance Service which point out the predicament of the Ambulance Service and the embarrassment that the provision
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