Page 5000 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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saying, in effect, "For various reasons, which are in fact within my control and we are not going to do anything about, I am not going to provide the information". That is not good enough, Minister. We on this side of the house, I can assure you, are not going to let you off the hook that lightly. You wanted to provide the information. You said that you would provide it, and I, for one, expect you to keep to your word, if you place any value in your word; but we will see.
Let us get this notion about political interference out of the way. We just want the same information about what is going on in the health system that you expected when you were in opposition.
Mr Berry: And never got.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is not true. Mr Berry asked me in this place in February of this year, "What is the state of play in the hospital budget? Is it blowing out?". I said at the time that I did not believe that it was, but I would find out. I eventually came back to this Assembly and I gave information about what was going on, to the best of my information. I fully disclosed the information. Anybody who says otherwise can show me in the Hansard where I did not say that. The fact is that I did. What this Minister has said has been in stark contrast. He said, when asked the same question, "It is not up to me to provide information; it is up to the Board of Health".
That was not what I said. It would never have been what I said about what was going on in our system, because I knew that I, as Minister, was responsible for the administration of health and was accountable to this Assembly. That is what this Minister is too; the same statement applies to Mr Berry. We are entitled to that information - I repeat - and we expect it. If you will not provide it, Mr Berry, we will make sure that we hound you until we get it.
Mr Speaker, I do not disagree with a great deal of the history that Mr Berry related with respect to the restructuring of the hospital system and the closure of Royal Canberra Hospital. Much of what he said was quite true. There is one thing, though, I think, that he has glossed over and did not address in any great detail, and I think it would put a different complexion on the apologia he gave for Labor's backflip on that question.
He failed to mention that a few weeks before the change of government he and Ms Follett were fully briefed by me and officers of the Board of Health on the situation with respect to the hospital restructure. Mr Berry says, "We were not told everything at that briefing; we could not find out certain information". He has not yet told me, in answer to my invitation to him, my challenge to him, what it was that he was not actually told there which was crucial to his decision about proceeding or not proceeding with the closure of Royal Canberra Hospital.
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