Page 3902 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: That is an extremely unfair reference and reflection on the people who work very hard in our Ambulance Service in the ACT. When I attacked the situation over ambulance services in the ACT last year I did not attack the crews or the personnel that manned those services. Mr Berry has sunk one step further today in having to respond and bring up this tawdry point of order by attacking the people who provide those services. Shame, Mr Berry, shame!
Mr Berry: Rubbish! I have not attacked them at all.
MR HUMPHRIES: He did not say it; he did not say it.
Mr Berry: You are the one who is working them to death.
MR HUMPHRIES: I can see that Mr Berry is getting very testy about this and I can well understand that. He knows that he has been hoist with his own petard.
The assertion that sickness amongst the Ambulance Service is the highest in the service's history is again a matter that he has not substantiated. It is simply pure assertion on the part of Mr Berry, and I would not give it much weight for that reason. I am also not going to apologise for the way in which I was unable to provide information at the time Mr Berry requested it in the Estimates Committee last week. Mr Berry sought a very large amount of information on relatively short notice. There were a great many issues; they took a great deal of time to sift through. One of those questions alone, I am instructed, would have required two ambulance officers two full days, that is four full working days, to provide the information. And he complains that it was not provided at the click of his fingers. The fact of the matter is that the crews Mr Berry believes so fervently ought to be on the road have better things to do than provide the extremely finicky information that Mr Berry has sought.
Mr Berry: They do not provide that information.
MR HUMPHRIES: Information was provided, Mr Berry. It is totally untrue of Mr Berry to say that I refused to provide it. Mr Berry sought information which had not been provided on the last occasion I appeared before the Estimates Committee, and I undertook to provide that information. It is totally untrue and false to say that I refused to provide it.
Mr Berry: Where is it?
MR HUMPHRIES: I did not say I was going to provide it yesterday, Mr Berry. I said I would provide it, but I did not say I would get it to you as soon as you happened to want it. You did not say I refused to provide it within a certain period of time; you said I refused to provide it. You stand condemned for that.
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