Page 5264 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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have a semi-compromise on that in which the Minister agrees this evening to put off gazetting them for six months and states that he will not gazette them over the next six months. Give them a try and, if they match up, then bring it to this house and I will certainly give my assurance of supporting Mr Berry. Mr Berry, if quality assurance is up, would you be prepared to give your support in that time as well?
Mr Berry: Of course; if it is up to scratch.
MR MOORE: "If it is up to scratch", and that is the point we are making. I think a compromise is available to us, and I think it is an appropriate way to go. It can be done two ways: either the amendment to the commencement section of the Bill, or simply an agreement by the Minister not to gazette those particular clauses. It is easy, it is sensible, and I think we will recognise how sensible it is. Let us not be persuaded that anything else is any different. I would encourage all members of the house who can see the sense in this to talk to one another. I would even be prepared to break for 10 minutes, if you feel you need to consult on this particular issue in order to see the light - - -
Mr Berry: I will second that.
MR MOORE: Mr Berry thinks it is a good idea as well.
Mr Kaine: That is very magnanimous of you, Michael.
MR MOORE: I am glad you mentioned that. You need to make sure that this board has the tools with which to do the job that it is setting out to do. If you do not do that, then the board is going to fall into disrepute and your own Government will fall further into disrepute, but I suppose that does not really become all that relevant.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (8.32): Mr Speaker, I would like to answer the point about the willingness of the medical profession to achieve something which has not been achieved before. I would like to table a letter from Dr Grahame Bates, the president of the ACT branch of the AMA, in which he says:
The AMA supports quality assurance and participation by all practitioners. The ACT Branch of the AMA is prepared to commit itself to work with the new ACT Board of Health to establish an acceptable program of quality assurance for introduction into ACT public hospitals by the middle of 1991.
I table the following letter:
Health services - Copy of letter to Mr G. Humphries, MLA, from the President, Australian Medical Association, Australian Capital Territory Branch, dated 11 December 1990.
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