Page 5283 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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legislation. So, the consultation processes that the Opposition would like to follow cannot, in all circumstances, be guaranteed. But one thing that Mr Jensen would understand - although his party has evaporated around him these days - is that the Australian Labor Party, for one, has a practice of strong consultation with members of the community in the development of its policies. That is why we have such a strong policy on the protection of patients' rights. We have made it clear that it is our view that professionals within the hospital system have to be accountable. The Government is not as sincere in that respect as we would like it to be.
Mr Deputy Speaker, you are the terror of the ACT Assembly. I do not mean that to be hurtful, Mr Deputy Speaker; but I still remember being traumatised by that which you inflicted upon me when you were last in the chair. And I am reminded of that from time to time.
This issue, Mr Deputy Speaker, is about the letting of contracts for disposable and reusable items for our health system. I will just give you an example. When Labor was in office, I saw the oddest proposal from a consultant which - - -
Mr Humphries: Yes, you told us yesterday.
MR BERRY: I will tell you again, just so that you do not forget. This person was going to provide a service to the Department of Community Services and Health for nothing. It was probably worth $50,000 or $60,000 in a consultant's terms, yet this service was going to be provided for nothing. I was a bit puzzled by this, and I thought to myself, "I wonder why somebody would do something worth so much money for nothing". Pretty soon it dawned on me that that consultant expected, in the long run, to get some work for the provision of a free service. In my view that is way over the top. If that particular consultant felt that he was able to offer that service, he must have felt that the systems within Community Services and Health would allow him to gather a large and profitable contract as a result of him offering a free service. That is not something which the community in the ACT would accept. In fact, it borders on being something which might more appropriately be decided by the courts in Queensland.
It seems to me, Mr Deputy Speaker, that we have to guard against those sorts of issues. We have to guard against the perception in the community that something is wrong with any of our contracting systems. As far as I can make out, there is not as much scrutiny of contracting arrangements within our health system as there is in other departments. I think that it is most appropriate that we should join together to improve the situation, and I ask the question: is this the one that the Government might agree to?
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