Page 3899 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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Mr Jensen: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: Mrs Grassby has been asked by you on numerous occasions to cease her interjections. I request her suspension.
Mrs Grassby: Mr Jensen ought to sit down. How many times have you asked him to shut up and he has not sat down?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby! Could I ask both members to - - -
Mrs Grassby: Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Grassby, please!
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the fact is that most of what the Opposition has said is a collection of distortions and half-truths. The reality is that the position of the Ambulance Service in the ACT is probably better than it was last year, and I make the assertion based on the evidence. The fact of life is that Mr Berry faced problems of a similar kind when he was in government. The sorts of things he issued a press release about today were probably capable of being said in exactly the same way last year, and he has not made reference to that fact. No-one is getting up in this place and pretending that our Ambulance Service is perfect; of course, it is not. It was not perfect under Mr Berry; it is not perfect under Gary Humphries, but it is improving.
Mr Berry: It is disastrous under Gary Humphries.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is not disastrous under Gary Humphries. The situation is improving, and Mr Berry knows that. Let us look at the evidence. Mr Berry's own position last year was anything but clear; it was extremely woolly. I will give you an example. On 1 June he was asked a question about ambulance services by Mr Duby. On 27 June he responded as follows:
There are four fully manned and equipped ambulances on duty at any time throughout each 24-hour, seven-day period.
That is what he said on 27 June. Then, apparently things changed, because on 27 September, three months later, I asked him the same question - more or less - and his response was this - and this would do Sir Humphrey Appleby great credit, Mr Speaker:
In relation to the last part of the question, there is at times, as you would appreciate, depending on the incidence of emergencies, the necessity for some of the ambulance crews to be away from their stations and, because of their involvement in those emergencies, only two might be freely available to respond in those sorts of circumstances.
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