Page 3063 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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a difference between the two circumstances. Work had been done; there were significant changes in the circumstances between those two dates, and it might be possible to argue that there could not be a retention of the original 1989 plans in exactly the same form. However, although there was a difference between the situation in 1989 and that in 1991, there was effectively no difference in the situation between 15 May 1991 and 6 June 1991 when the Follett Government took office for the second time. Ms Follett scratches her ear, wondering what the significance of the date of 15 May is.
Mr Deputy Speaker, on 15 May I and the then Acting Secretary of the Department of Health, Mr Turner, and the Canberra manager of the hospital redevelopment program, Mr Kelvin Steel, sat down in the joint party room on the fifth floor and briefed Ms Follett and Mr Berry on the hospital redevelopment program. We briefed them completely on that subject.
Ms Follett: No, you did not. You were not able to answer basic questions.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Deputy Speaker, Ms Follett says that we did not. The fact is that every question that was asked by Ms Follett and Mr Berry either was answered at that time or was taken on notice and subsequently answered after that meeting. Everything that was relevant to the question of whether the Royal Canberra Hospital North should remain open was disclosed at that meeting. Ms Follett and Mr Berry were at great pains to discover what it was that they would have to do, were they in a position to take office in the future - perhaps they had some prescience there - in order to be able to reopen that hospital. What would they have to commit themselves to? Would they be able to make the promise of reopening the hospital? That question was fully answered to them on or shortly after 15 May of this year.
Ms Follett has the opportunity of rising in this debate after I sit down and explaining to this Assembly what it was that was not properly disclosed or discussed with her and her colleague at that time. The fact of life is that everything that could be told to her was told to her and to Mr Berry. I want to know what it is that she remained dissatisfied about which could not have been provided, or which was not provided, and which caused her to change her mind. She did change her mind, obviously, between 15 May, or shortly thereafter, and 6 June.
After that meeting she went to the people of the ACT, and particularly to some members of this Assembly upon whose votes she relied to obtain government on 6 June, and said, "We believe that it is still possible to reopen that hospital. We will do our best to reopen that hospital if it can be done. We will try our valiant best and we believe that it may still be possible". That is what she said: "We believe that it may still be possible to reopen
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