Page 4005 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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Can he prove that there were fewer public hospital beds available at the end of the Alliance Government's term in office than at the beginning? Given the fact that the Labor Government is reducing the number of both private and public beds, does this not make your Government even more conservative than the Alliance?
MR BERRY: It seems that this is part of the concerted attack which was flagged by the Canberra Times. Again there is no blood dripping, and there will not be any at the end of my answer. What has been made clear to the Estimates Committee is that Labor is about providing quality public hospital services. I have made myself available to the Estimates Committee, where the Minister and other members of the Assembly could ask any number of questions about hospital services in the ACT.
Mr Humphries: I am not the Minister any more, Wayne.
MR BERRY: With respect, that was an oversight, and I will withdraw that unequivocally. He is not the Minister, and he will never be again. The former Minister, I should say, Mr Speaker, had all of the opportunities in the world to ask questions about the hospital system and, dare I say it, bed numbers.
Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I know that we have been having a good old laugh at this, but it really is not funny to see question time wasted in this fashion. Mr Stefaniak's question was quite specific and has not yet, in the first 2 or 3 minutes of this answer, even been touched upon by Mr Berry. I ask you, please, to let this question time flow in such a way that we can get to the meat of some answers, if any, being offered by the Ministers.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Humphries. Mr Berry, would you draw your answer to a conclusion.
MR BERRY: If Mr Stefaniak would like to put to me the answer that he wants, I will check it and tell him whether I agree with it.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Please proceed.
MR BERRY: The members opposite might well get agitated about Ministers responding fully to questions that have been asked in this place. No, there is no question, Mr Stefaniak, about the issue of conservatism. You have it all; you have it stitched up; you have the market cornered.
Mr Stefaniak: Let us talk about the hospitals and the beds, Wayne.
MR BERRY: And now what we will talk about is the provision of public hospital services.
Mr Humphries: What about beds, Wayne?
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