Page 4158 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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As I have previously brought to the attention of this Assembly, just today we were in receipt of further information about a very serious situation which would make most people of the Territory deeply concerned about why they pay ambulance cover, for heaven's sake. They are paying increased rates now and they are required to pay those increased rates through their private health insurance for a service that they are not getting, a service that they thought they were getting just a little while ago. That is misleading for the people of the ACT.
So it is the Government, and this Minister in particular, that ought to be censured. There is no doubt about that. This Minister has misled the people of the ACT in terms of the delivery of ambulance services. Mr Speaker, if there are those sorts of admissions and if there are decent attempts to address the problem, I do not mind cooperating with the Government; but I am not going to cooperate with people who continue with this misleading line on the issue of ambulances.
I will repeat what was said this afternoon in question time. I asked the Minister whether he was aware of a 15-year-old male with a para-spinal abscess and a risk of paraplegia who required an ambulance to take him to Sydney - and there was not one - for an evaluation of his condition. His parents have ambulance cover. They are paying for four ambulances and an ambulance normally would be available to provide that service if the four were there, but they were not last night. They had to put him in a station wagon, for heaven's sake. They had to have intravenous drip equipment modified and antibiotics and pain-killing drugs administered so that he could make the trip. The trip was made in an unsatisfactory vehicle, with a mattress thrown in the back, no seat belts, and contrary to the road safety regulations, so I suspect that his parents could have been pinched for carting their sick child to Sydney. That is absolutely outrageous.
I note that the Minister has said that he will look into that and find out what went on. But that is not going to change a thing. It is the 10 months of inaction that is the real problem here. You will not change it tomorrow. You have been sitting on your botts for 10 months and you have done nothing. The fact of the matter is that it was only on 8 October that any recruiting action was taken by this Government. Nothing has been done, despite the fact that this Minister, when in opposition, had criticised the Follett Labor Government over ambulances. That criticism was examined and action to address it was put in train immediately. There is no doubt about that.
I do not care what this Minister does in respect of motions that he might move against me. I will stand up and defend the provision of these public services for as long as I have breath in me.
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