Page 5259 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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Write a direction to say that at this stage it does not seem appropriate to use it. Try negotiations first. But do not pull the teeth from this legislation.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (8.14): Mr Speaker, what Mr Moore has said has actually made quite a lot of sense. I have to say that I do not powerfully object to what he has to say; but I do think that, as a general rule, the approach government takes should lean towards the tolerant. It should lean towards an attitude which allows people to come to the party, as it were, by their own choice rather than because laws enacted by the Assembly force them to come to that point.
What Mr Moore has said is quite true. Doctors have had a chance for a very long time to set up some mechanism for quality assurance, and it is a matter of concern to me that for so long those doctors have not cooperated - and I make no bones about that - in creating such a situation. However, it is quite clear to me that as an Assembly we have the power at any stage to provide for those provisions to be inserted into this Act when it becomes an Act. It is my view that the Assembly should not hesitate to do that if it is unable to secure the agreement of the medical profession to a voluntary system of quality assurance.
In my view, Mr Speaker, we are now in a position where we have a window of opportunity. The medical profession has made it quite clear to me that they accept their previous lackadaisical approach to this matter, they accept that this has caused the hospital system in the ACT to lose accreditation, they accept that it has caused serious problems to the delivery of high quality health care in Canberra, and they are prepared to do something about it.
As Minister, I am not prepared to throw that out the window and say, "Notwithstanding your preparedness to work with the Government to achieve common goals, I am going to legislate, and I am going to make you do this". That should not be the first port of call for a government. As such, I think it is appropriate for us to give the opportunity to doctors to embark on a voluntary quality assurance program. If it appears that we cannot achieve this goal, believe me, I will be the first person to come back here and support legislation to force it to happen; but I think that as legislators we should use coercive legislation only as a last resort, and I am not convinced that we have yet reached the last resort.
MR BERRY (8.17): Mr Speaker - - -
Mr Kaine: Why do you not get your act together, Wayne? You can never find the right papers.
MR BERRY: We do not have to move very quickly. I can see that it agitates you, and that is not a bad little ploy; but you are not very difficult to agitate these days. I am very happy that you are going on a holiday and I hope that
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