Page 4207 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR BERRY: Mr Deputy Speaker, Mr Jensen mumbles as usual, and says, "You know about it now". I heard from Mr Humphries' own mouth just a moment ago that it was about ambulances. So, yes, I do know that it is about ambulances. I am pleased that Mr Humphries has at last raised an issue which affects health, but I hope that it has more substance to it than many of the other issues that he has raised in this place before.
Mr Humphries: Bed numbers?
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries mutters, "Bed numbers?". That is a very interesting thing. Mr Humphries is so concerned about hospital bed numbers in the ACT that the first decision of the committee of which he is chair was to go to Tasmania.
Mr Kaine: Mr Deputy Speaker, I take a point of order. The subject of the debate at the moment is not bed numbers, although I know that Mr Berry is very touchy about them. The subject of the debate is whether or not to suspend standing orders. Mr Berry is very good at diverting from the subject at hand. He will not answer a question when you ask him one, but he will go on at great length when he has not been asked a question.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please stick to the subject, Mr Berry. Mr Kaine, I am upholding your point of order.
MR BERRY: My time has expired.
Dr Kinloch: I raise a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. My point of order is that I am very close to moving to censure - rather gently, though I am willing to do it - Mr Berry for misleading the house.
Mr Connolly: I take a point of order. Dr Kinloch is making an allegation about misleading. He knows the standing orders. He should not use the word "misleading". Unless he moves a motion of censure, he may not say "misleading".
Dr Kinloch: I am happy to move that Mr Berry has stated that the beds committee, of which Mr Humphries is chairman, has agreed to go to Tasmania, and that is false.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: That has nothing to do with this debate, Dr Kinloch.
Dr Kinloch: Mr Berry did say that.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: He may have, but that has nothing to do with this debate. I do not think it arose in this debate. Mr Berry had just started to get onto bed numbers when Mr Kaine took a point of order. I pulled Mr Berry back to the subject and upheld the point of order. We are talking about a suspension of standing orders in relation to ambulances, not bed numbers. Mr Kaine is quite correct. It seems that Mr Berry's time has expired, so it is all rather academic now.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .