Page 5005 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It is nonsense, Mr Deputy Speaker, for Mr Berry to make the claims that he is making. He was not past the point of no return. The only point of no return that many of us totally agree on was the building at Calvary Hospital. That was the point of no return and, as many of us in this chamber know, that set an inexorable, ineluctable process going in the community. People know that Calvary started to take the steam off the situation on the Acton Peninsula, and that was unfortunate because the Woden Valley Hospital already existed.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport) (12.21 am): I knew when I climbed to my feet a little while ago that it would not do the temperament of people much good to hear a bit of the old raw truth, and I was right, again. There are just a couple of things I need to respond to, although it is irrelevant history, I suppose.
Mr Collaery: Irrelevant history?
MR BERRY: It is. By 15 May 1991 - that was the date of the meeting to which Mr Humphries referred - the master development control plan had been released. We had seen a copy, which was provided by unofficial means. The Minister did not supply it. We also asked of him the bed figures, showing the falling length of stay. They were promised at the meeting, on my understanding; but they were never supplied. We were promised figures showing staffing costs, and they were never supplied. They are just some issues. I raise them and put them on the record pretty much as part of the tit for tat that is going on in relation to this issue. It is not very relevant; nevertheless it is said.
Mr Collaery can now be described as the person who was gunna try to save the Royal Canberra Hospital, but never got around to it.
Mr Collaery: Not all of it.
MR BERRY: Well, he was gunna save not all of the Royal Canberra Hospital. He was gunna save bits of it, and never got around to that either. All of the stuff that he went on with is pretty much irrelevant. He asks me questions about what happened when I was in opposition. To be quite frank, Mr Deputy Speaker, it is not a question one is required to answer in this place. He subsequently would ask Mr Humphries, now in opposition, to ponder questions about when he was a Minister. That is not entirely open to him either. It is all much of the smear and muckraking and mud throwing - - -
Mr Collaery: Mr Deputy Speaker, I ask that the imputation, "smear", be withdrawn by Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: All right, I will withdraw "smear". It is all much of the mud throwing for which Mr Collaery has become famous - for both of those.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .