Page 418 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
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Mrs Carnell feasted on a comparison between pregnancy termination and cardio-thoracic surgery. I would have thought she was more professional than that; that she would know the difference between a pregnancy termination and cardio-thoracic surgery. Does she say that 1,100 to 1,500 women should continue to be forced to go to Sydney for a relatively minor procedure and that ought to be compared with cardio-thoracic surgery? They are just chalk and cheese. It is a silly notion. When somebody with a professional background in health says such a silly thing, it makes me wonder whether these people have their feet on the ground. They are about this far off. They really do not know where they are.
The provision of health services in the ACT is a difficult one, and I think Labor is doing well to have achieved so much in such a short time, given the excesses of the Liberal Party. As I have always said, if you cannot manage the dollars you cannot manage anything, and we have been able to demonstrate that there is a change in the way we manage finances in the hospital system. I am not confident that we are out of the woods yet. We have to do some more work, I am sure. At any rate, we have done far better than has been done in the past, and it all looks promising for that side of health management in the ACT.
It is true that waiting lists have grown in the ACT. There is no question about that. I have never hidden it; I have nothing to hide. Waiting lists blew out under the Alliance Government, and circumstances were created by the Alliance Government which could not be turned around immediately. There is no question about that; they cannot be turned around immediately.
Under Labor, we have reduced costs in our hospital system and we have increased performance. That is something the Liberals have never been able to do, and we have done it in difficult circumstances. We are also in a position where we have to recover ground that was not lost but thrown away by inactivity on the part of the former Minister.
Ms Follett: And inexperience.
MR BERRY: Inexperience comes into it as well. There has been less human cost than would have been the case under the former Minister because we have increased our performance. Be serious about this. The hospital system is performing better. In Labor we have a team of people who are committed to a strong public hospital system, compared to a team of people in the Liberals who are compelled from their innermost parts to sell it all off.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
POWERS OF ATTORNEY (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
Debate resumed from 9 April 1992, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.54): This Bill builds on the Powers of Attorney Act passed in 1989, and I indicate that the Liberal Party will support these amendments. They are, I believe, designed to strengthen the operation of that important Act, which was passed three years ago, and will build on the understanding that
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