Page 3905 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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that statement by Mr Humphries as an admission that the minimum requirement is not being met, and that is a very alarming situation.
I would also draw to the Assembly's attention the fact that it was the members opposite - Mr Duby and Mr Humphries - who first raised concerns about the Ambulance Service last year. Those concerns were taken up by Mr Berry, who was then the Minister responsible, and in September last year he called for a review of the Ambulance Service. That review was to have been completed by December last year. I am unaware of the results of that review and I believe that they should be made available.
It seems, Mr Speaker, that Mr Humphries has not been able to answer the detailed questions that Mr Berry has put to him. We have heard from Mr Humphries that the figures Mr Berry has provided are totally untrue, yet we have heard no other figures put forward, either in this Assembly or in the Estimates Committee. To assert merely that they are totally untrue is really to do less than justice to this Assembly. We must have a case put. If he is to say that the figures provided are just rubbish, then he must say what the correct figures are.
I would put it to you, Mr Speaker, that the figures Mr Berry has provided are extremely well sourced. They are certainly not plucked from thin air. They are figures which this Government must take seriously and must respond to in a serious way. To date, we have not heard it respond in this way. Indeed, Mr Humphries has alleged that the only reason Mr Berry raised the matter was to take the media attention away from his tobacco Bill. What a paltry statement. I find that an unforgivable statement in this Assembly and a terrible reflection on another member. It is a denial that there is, in fact, a crisis in the Ambulance Service and a denial that I, for one, find quite untenable. He has not put the opposite case.
Mr Speaker, I also believe that Mr Humphries, while making much of the increased staffing of the Ambulance Service - and I accept that he has managed to increase the staffing levels - has not actually addressed what that means to the service provided to the community, and that is what is at issue here. It is not the numbers of staff; it is the actual service that is provided. I am further advised, Mr Speaker, that the seven new staff have commenced only in the past few weeks. I believe that in grabbing the glory on the increase in staff Mr Humphries has, in fact, acted quite belatedly, because those staff positions were advertised on 8 October. It has been a very last-ditch effort to bring things into line.
Mr Speaker, I believe it is fair to say that, on the whole question of the ambulance service provided in the ACT, both my Government and the current Government have had extraordinary difficulty in getting hold of the facts. Mr Berry now has the facts. Quite frankly, I think Mr
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