Page 414 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
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meaning the Alliance Government -
is finished.
We know what is happening now, do we not, Minister? We know that under your Government there are going to be fewer public hospital beds. You said that this proved that we were a bad government. What does it say about your Government? Mr Berry, you cannot avoid the fact that, to put this in terms you would understand, there is a stench, an odour of hypocrisy, permeating the atmosphere at the moment, and it is yours, Minister.
Let us talk about waiting lists, also a preoccupation of Mr Berry's while he was in opposition. I quote him from 14 June:
We have to provide more services if we want to slice the hospital waiting lists - and we do.
He said on 11 June:
Reducing hospital waiting lists, dealing with problems in the ACT Ambulance Service and scrutinising the hospital redevelopment budget are the priorities of the new Minister for Health, Wayne Berry.
... ... ...
Long hospital waiting lists were a clear indicator that the system was not providing the necessary level of service.
Did you say that or did you not say that, Minister? If he said it, and he has nodded, then he must acknowledge that his system is not providing the level of service that he expected as Minister.
Mr Berry: After what you did to it, what do you expect?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, Minister, you cannot weasel out of it. You cannot keep blaming the Alliance Government, month after month after month since we left office. The fact is that you are hoist with your own petard. All the criteria you used to judge the hospital system under the Alliance Government are now coming back to haunt you. Every one of them has come back to haunt you, and you have done worse than the Alliance in every one of these categories.
The Minister talked about fast-tracking of the hospital system in terrible terms during the time he was in opposition. To him, fast-tracking was the worst thing to happen to the system since the Black Death. What do we see when he comes into office? He has not slowed down the fast-tracking of the hospital system. It is going every bit as fast. It has probably gone a bit faster; you have accelerated it. Talk about a very fast train! We have a very fast-track hospital system. I might have started it, but you have certainly kept it going. You have shovelled the coal into the engine pretty well, Mr Berry, I can assure you.
This Minister said to his bureaucrats on that fateful day, 6 June, "For goodness' sake, what can I do about this problem?". They said to him, "What is the most important thing you want us to deal with, Mr Minister?". He said, "I really gave Humphries a hard time about the blow-out. Can you make sure that we do not
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