Page 395 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
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Mr Wood: Just follow Gary Humphries's policies, I guess.
MR BERRY: No, no; we will not do that. The issue of medically acquired AIDS is an important one for the Government and as yet no decision has been made in the ACT on the issue of compensation in respect of that. I have met with people concerned with the matter. As members would appreciate, other States and Territories have already made agreements outside of the court system to ensure that long delays do not occur in relation to - - -
Mr Humphries: What about us?
MR BERRY: Gary Humphries says, "What about us?". What a joke! This man was the Minister for 18 months and did nothing. He did not do a thing, and he says, "What about us?". What a hypocrite! This is an important issue, one which the Government views with great seriousness. As I said, I have met with members of the Haemophilia Foundation of Australia and the Haemophilia Support Group of the ACT to discuss the issue. It is a matter that will be coming before Cabinet in due course; but, as members will appreciate, I am not going to predict the outcome of Cabinet's consideration.
I do expect that the Liberals will try to make some political mileage out of it, rather than allowing the Government to get on with the job of considering the matter and doing what they never could do when they were in government. Whether Mrs Carnell wants to or not, she has to accept that there was a period when her people were in charge, namely, Mr Humphries, and he did nothing. This is something that has been left to the Labor Government and it will be dealt with in the usual process, but I am not going to predict the outcome of Cabinet decision making.
Racing Industry
MS ELLIS: My question is directed to the Minister for Sport. Is the Minister able to advise the Assembly when the report commissioned by the Australian racing Ministers on the economic importance of the racing industry will be available for public scrutiny?
MR BERRY: That is an extremely good question in the light of recent revelations which were probably accentuated by a document that was tabled in the Assembly this morning. The racing Ministers did commission a report on the worth of racing to the Australian economy. They did so because they were concerned that nothing similar had been done before, and it was important, of course, to ensure that we had a full assessment of that issue. It is a matter of great importance. We commissioned an inquiry, the worth of which was about $250,000, and that was shared on a pro rata basis, State by State and Territory. The share for the ACT was small.
Mr Humphries: How small?
MR BERRY: I think it was of the order of $15,000 or so. It was not a lot of money.
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