Page 999 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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The first question that sprang to my mind was: What did the other 66 per cent say? As a result of that query I arranged for the editor of the Valley View to be contacted this morning and to have my office discuss with him some of the implications and the manner in which that survey was conducted. It was the editor who conducted the survey and that particular person was not exactly sure about some of the responses he had received because the notepad on which he had recorded his interviews with people was at home. That is fair enough.
He thought, however, from memory, that he had interviewed about 50 people and that about another 20 or so had been interviewed by another member of his staff. About 70 people, in other words, had been interviewed in Weston Creek. Whether that is a statistically valid sample or not I think those people from places like the Australian Bureau of Statistics could argue about. He said, in addition, that, while 34 per cent said that they were unhappy, most people were unaware of any problems in the Weston Creek services area. An equal percentage, that is 34 per cent approximately, said that they were fairly satisfied with health services in the area. Another 20 per cent of people did not know. I think, in the circumstances, to see a headline like "Health Services Condemned" because 34 per cent said that they were unhappy and 34 per cent said that they were fairly satisfied is a slight stretching of the evidence that was actually brought forward in this survey, whatever that evidence is worth, given the sample size and the way in which it was conducted.
I think it is extremely easy to attack, to criticise, to score political points about the inadequacy of services - - -
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Humphries! Your time has expired. Is there no-one speaking from the Opposition benches in accordance with normal procedure?
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (3.54): Nothing that Mr Humphries has had to say on this matter would persuade anybody of the Government's good intentions in relation to Weston Creek. It seems to me and, indeed, to the residents of Weston Creek itself that all of the Government's activities relating to that area have been marked by short-sightedness, by total chaos and by inevitable conflict. It has been the actions of the Ministers involved and of the Government as a whole that have brought about that situation.
Mr Humphries seems to put great store in an attempt to persuade Mr Berry and other members of the Opposition of his actions in relation to Weston Creek. I put it to him and to the Assembly that it might be of a lot more use if he attempted to negotiate and consult with the people of Weston Creek themselves on these issues. That has yet to happen. What we have seen in Weston Creek is an attempt by
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