Page 3900 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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This is classic Sir Humphrey Appleby. In fact, that was an admission by Mr Berry in September last year - almost exactly the same time as now - that there are problems at that time of the year with our ambulance services. That was an admission, a frank admission - not a frank admission; it was a forced admission - from Mr Berry, the then Minister, that there are problems at that time of the year. Those problems beset us again at this point in time, but this Government has made a difference.
At this time last year there were some 62 staff in the Ambulance Service; today there are 71. That is a response to the problems that the service is facing and I believe it is the beginning of a solution to those problems. Obviously people will become sick; there are two or three staff at present on maternity leave; there are staff on workers compensation - all those things are not matters which governments can control, they are matters which happen from time to time in any work force, and the fact of life is that we have to cope with those things. To suggest, as Mr Berry has suggested, quite dishonestly, that the situation has deteriorated from last year, is totally and utterly false. There is simply no evidence of that.
Mr Berry quotes anecdotal evidence out of context, some of which is quite untrue. Let me quote some of the evidence that appears in his press release of today. First of all he says:
Staffing levels have been down to as low as 1.5 crews.
I am assured that that is not the case; it has never been the case - at least, not in the last 12 months.
Mr Berry: Give us all of the facts I asked for.
MR HUMPHRIES: So, Mr Berry is making up the evidence because he cannot get the evidence from me. That gives it all away, does it not, Mr Berry? He says:
The minimum requirement is for 4 ambulances to operate 24 hours a day within the ACT.
If that is the case, then he himself was not complying with his own rules last year, on 27 September. He says that there was a motor vehicle accident in which a person with a broken jaw had to wait for 55 minutes. I think it is worth knowing that that incident was not reported to management, so apparently there was not sufficient angst on the part of the person affected to complain about the matter. No evidence about that has come before the Ambulance Service. I would have to ask why, unless Mr Berry is making it up.
He points out that there was an ambulance crew under contract at a race meeting and says that that was a rather disgraceful thing to happen. Mr Berry has conveniently
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