Page 4507 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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Mr Humphries: How many was it in 1986?
MR BERRY: In 1986 there were 332, and that was when the strike was on. But since then the lowest figure was in the period when I was Minister, and it was then 170.
Mr Stefaniak: Pure coincidence, I think. How many were there then, Wayne?
MR BERRY: The figure was 170. It has grown by almost 40 per cent since this member took over as Minister - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members, please address your questions through the Chair.
MR BERRY: Nevertheless, the issue is one of concern for the people of the ACT. I am encouraged by the support that the Minister shows for preventative measures, and I would further encourage the Government to do as much as is possible to prevent - particularly amongst the young - undue exposure to ultraviolet rays. Of course, we have a culture which is sun loving and we have to advise and educate people on the dangers of persisting with that culture; but we also have to ensure that, where we have failed in the past to educate the community and people have been subjected to ultraviolet exposure and have suffered the disfigurement of sun cancer, we also have a government which is compassionate enough to provide proper hospital services to deal with those disfigurements.
MR MOORE (3.34): I also would like to take just a couple of minutes to comment on this particular issue. As far as skin cancer goes, I am delighted to see the Minister making such an effort to "ensure all children are encouraged to wear hats this summer while they are in the open in school hours". I am going to make a positive suggestion to the Minister that, considering he is both the Minister for Education and the Minister for Health, it would be appropriate for him to write to each of the school boards setting out some of the examples that he has set out in this paper. He could suggest to the school boards that they respond, stating how they either are encouraging or intending to encourage children to wear hats.
I bring this up because just this morning I asked my son whether he had his hat in his bag - he does not have it on the way to school because he has a helmet on when he is on the bike with me - and he said that he does not like wearing it when he is playing soccer, which, of course, is the very time that he is outside. The peer pressure there is quite significant and I think that if the school has a policy, encouraged through the board, of encouraging students to wear hats, then they will tend to do so. I think this is not a case of trying to force but a case of encouraging. That is the word the Minister has used, and I would just like to say how supportive I am of that and make this positive suggestion to improve that.
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