Page 5158 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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The Minister in his speech today made it clear that some of the services that have been provided under the current provisions, the Community and Health Service Act, are under threat. He said that. They are under threat. He said, "I do not know whether we need to provide research and advisory services". Do you mean to tell me, Minister, that you do not know whether we need to provide research and advisory services? And you are the one that is sponsoring this Bill. You talk about me not having done my homework. What a joke! The fact of the matter is that this legislation must be strengthened to include the amendments that I have circulated.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (11.04): I would have to say that if I demonstrated any facial expression earlier, and I do not think I did, it would only have been made at the fact that Mr Berry was getting to his feet to rabbit on and to crank the handle on the old ideological speech; and out come all the old familiar words: "your big business mates", "privatise", "fire sale" - all of the old ideological stuff. He has a very limited vocabulary. You turn him on and out it will come - not that he ever adds anything to the debate; he just cranks the handle and out it comes, rabbiting on about privatisation. If this Government had the intention of privatising anything, it would have done so. It has not privatised one single operation - not one.
For you to throw this out there and to misrepresent to the stage where people may well be worried about the quality of the health service they are getting is totally irresponsible. But, of course, it is the kind of action that we expect from them. There is no responsibility whatsoever.
Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. There was an imputation that I had misrepresented the facts, and I think that ought to be withdrawn.
Mr Kaine: So you did.
MR SPEAKER: No, I believe that - - -
Mr Berry: I think "misrepresentation" is a little bit over the top, Mr Speaker.
Mr Kaine: He did misrepresent. He said that we were privatising the health service. We are not. That is a gross and total misrepresentation.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Berry: On the point of order, Mr Speaker: as is the practice in this place, you allow people to speak on these issues. What the Chief Minister is referring to is my comment that this Government is about privatising hospital services. They have shown that in the past; they have said that they are going to expand the private sector by at least 10 per cent. That is not a misrepresentation.
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