Page 5397 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: Any date would do, Mr Berry. Mr Berry says that I did not specify which date. He has not provided any information on any basis so far. He asked what positions I was talking about before, what classifications. I do not care what classifications; any classification will do. Any information from this Minister would be welcome. Mr Stefaniak asked a question about business rules. Mr Berry agreed to supply them. Very good. We are very pleased about that. He could not do that at the time, of course; but, okay, he agreed to supply them.
He was further asked: What increased expenditure, such as wage increases, will the board not be held accountable for? This is a question of expenditure like the superannuation part of the board's responsibility in the budget, salary increases determined by industrial commissions, et cetera. What is the board accountable for?
Mr Berry: I agreed to provide the business rules.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, no. The Minister agreed to provide the business rules, not to answer the second part of the question. There was no attempt to supply answers to the second part of the question.
Mrs Nolan asked a question: How long does a person have to be kept waiting in casualty before they get admitted to a bed, ideally? Mr Berry has taken opportunities in the past, on almost every question on health he has received, to digress into platitudes about what the Government sees as desirable in health. On this occasion he did not care to offer any opinion at all about people having to wait five, six or seven hours before getting a bed in our public hospital system, apparently because he realises that he is increasingly unable to provide any assurances to the people of Canberra about those very sorts of issues. Mr Speaker, that level of "I don't care" response by this Minister, by this Government, is unacceptable to the Assembly. I believe that I speak for the Assembly when I say that that kind of cavalier, contemptuous attitude on the part of this Minister is unacceptable.
Mr Berry agreed to provide that information, as requested by members of the Assembly, in order to avoid a motion of censure of him a week or so ago. He was desperate to avoid being censured by the Assembly; he agreed to provide the information. Now I am saying to him that he had better be as good as his word. He has offered to provide the information; he had better do so.
I have a fear, Mr Speaker, that we are being softened up in this debate for the Minister to not supply the information, irrespective of what happens in this debate. It is my fear that what the Minister is saying is, "I do not believe that the information should any longer be provided. I invite you, the Assembly, to rescind your motion; but, if you do not, I am going to ignore it anyway. I am going to ignore
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