Page 2678 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 1991
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MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, if I can help you, I did say "half-truths". It has been said throughout the debate, but if it really offends Mr Stevenson I will half withdraw it.
MR SPEAKER: Which half are you withdrawing, Mr Berry?
MR BERRY: The half.
Mr Stevenson: Was that a qualified withdrawal, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: No, I think it is accepted.
MR BERRY: Mr Stevenson talks about truth. It is all right for him to try to seize upon an electorate on this issue. It is very easy for somebody to do that without touching on the facts. Mr Stevenson, too, avoids the issue of how much money was spent by the Alliance Government in moving to make sure that their redevelopment project could not be reversed. Nobody will cop that sort of rhetoric and those sorts of furphies.
There was some discussion of private hospital beds and the total number of beds which might be required in the ACT by the year 2000. It is a matter of record that the number of unused private hospital beds is 95. That is a fair indication that there is no interest in the private sector in more private hospital beds, unless that can be created by some sort of artificial shortage in the public sector, and that is not something that Labor is about. We have made our position clear in that respect. We have said that there will be no new private hospital in the ACT. The market clearly is not there.
For members of the Liberal Party to say that you have to satisfy the market, that people have to exercise their choice, is really putting a misleading argument to the people of the ACT. The market is not there. The most important point about Labor's plan in this respect is that the cornerstone of the Liberals' policy on these hospitals has been removed. There will be no new private hospital along the lines promised by the Liberals.
Mr Humphries: Wait till February.
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries says, "Wait until after February". I hope that he is not banking on being able to participate. I think No. 5 on the Liberal ticket will be a bit hard.
Mr Kaine: He will be there, and so will Nos 7 and 8.
MR BERRY: Bill will be happy with that, but I will bet that he is not banking on it either.
Mr Kaine: Yes, he is. He knows that he has got it made.
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