Page 3993 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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you got into government; that you were unhappy that the Royal Canberra Hospital closure had to go ahead and you knew it; and that you were unhappy because there were inevitably going to be surgery budget overruns and waiting lists, even if you were the Minister? Is that why you were unhappy?
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, Mr Kaine has again tried a fairly shallow defence of the atrocity that was committed against our hospital system during the time that he was Chief Minister. He well knows that it was Labor's decision to establish the principal hospital at the Woden Valley site.
Mr Stefaniak: Are you claiming credit for that now? You did not like it a couple of years ago.
MR BERRY: And you supported it.
Mr Jensen: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I refer to standing order 118(a) and (b). I thought answers had to be concise and should not debate the subject. Why do we not get on with question time?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, please draw your answer to a conclusion.
Mr Humphries: I was nice and short. Why can't you be short?
MR BERRY: That is something that I physically cannot do. Mr Speaker, Labor supported and, indeed, announced the establishment of a principal hospital at the Woden Valley site. Labor also announced, in its initial decision, after consultation with the community and trade unions, that the Royal Canberra Hospital would stay open. But Labor is also a party of realists. We know and understand when the sort of damage which had been inflicted by the Alliance Government on our hospital system had gone so far as to require some urgent action to address the problems in our hospital system.
Mr Kaine cannot ignore the fact that Labor has made a responsible decision, despite all of the flaws in the Alliance Government's decision. Take, for example, the decision of the Alliance Government to establish a private hospital on the shores of Lake Ginninderra.
Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, this has nothing whatever to do with the question that Mr Berry was asked. We have gone through almost half of question time, and almost all of it has been taken up by one non-answer from Mr Berry. Can we please desist?
MR SPEAKER: Order! I take your point of view.
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