Page 596 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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Mr Berry: Results have changed a bit.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry talks about results. He says that results prove that the Government policy has changed. That argument is so stupid that the flaw could be instantly identified by anybody looking at it, even a child. There are all sorts of factors that affect what happens in hospitals; Government policy is only one of those factors. As I have said before and as I say again, it is our policy to provide high quality services on an ongoing basis to people in the ACT. If we are going to cut out therapy aides to people in our hospital system or in nursing homes or whatever, I will come back to this Assembly and I will say so. I will not do so by stealth.
MR BERRY: I ask a supplementary question. Since the residents at Jindalee depended on these aides to organise their activities and their entertainment, who will perform these functions now? Have you any idea?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, perhaps Mr Berry would like to volunteer to go out to assist people who might be at some disadvantage because there is a shortage of staff. The fact of life is that I cannot instantly provide qualified people for every part of the Government Service, any more than Mr Berry could when he was in office.
Mr Berry: These people were removed. They did not just disappear; they were sent away from there.
MR HUMPHRIES: He can interject and buzz across the chamber all he wants. The fact is that you cannot generate people out of thin air. I cannot drag someone out of the public gallery and say, "You are going to be a therapy aide at Jindalee Nursing Home; here you go", and push them over to the nursing home. It cannot be done. You have to have qualified people, they have to be appropriately trained and, of course, they have to want to volunteer for the position.
Mr Berry: That is misleading, Minister. That is deliberately misleading, Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think that Mr Berry said that I was deliberately misleading the Assembly. I ask him to withdraw that assertion.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, I would uphold that objection, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: You would not uphold the one about the Chief Minister calling me a liar this morning.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry, the situation this morning was entirely different; that was a statement made directly to - - -
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