Page 1348 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
hospitals for the months of January and February; and we will ask the question in relation to March as well. We again ask the Minister: Will he provide the information requested as a matter of urgency, in order that the people of the ACT can be informed of the state of hospital services? The Government does not seem to be interested in providing any of these figures as a matter of urgency, because the question dated 12 February still lies on the notice paper and remains unanswered.
Also in the course of the debate, the Minister said that the ACT joined other States in relation to difficulties with waiting lists for beds in the public hospital system. There is no doubt in my mind that there will always be a waiting list in a hospital system. It is a question of how big it is. The Labor Party ensured, when it was in office, that we had the lowest possible waiting lists. This Government, of course, has said that we have a similar problem to the States. But not once has the Minister brought to the attention of this Assembly a State which has had its waiting lists blow out by 60 per cent in such a short time. So, that Minister was setting out to mislead the people of the ACT into believing that there was no difference in the ACT from what occurred in other States. He was wrong. He was very wrong.
Mr Humphries: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Berry knows that the expression that someone has misled the Assembly is unparliamentary. He should either have a full debate, where he brings the evidence forward and proves it - doing so in the middle of the adjournment debate is hardly the appropriate place to do that - or withdraw the phrase. I think he should be asked to withdraw that expression.
Mr Berry: If I could just debate the point, Mr Deputy Speaker: I did not mention misleading the Assembly; I said "misleading the community". I was very careful about that.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I heard the word "mislead", Mr Berry. If you said "mislead the community", that might make it a little bit different.
MR BERRY: I was very careful about that issue.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did not quite hear the word "community". Mr Prowse, I gave you the nod as the second speaker in the adjournment debate.
Mr Prowse: I was just suggesting that you had to give your ruling before I proceeded, Mr Deputy Speaker.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: He seems to be deferring to you, Mr Humphries.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .