Page 470 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 May 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Graduate Nurse Programs
MRS CARNELL: My question without notice is to Mr Berry, the Minister for Health. He has indicated that it would cost approximately a million dollars to run the graduate nurse programs this year and that, due to budgetary constraints, the programs had to be axed. Most of these young nurses are still without jobs. I ask the Minister whether it is true that 30 Vietnamese male nurses have recently been employed at Woden Valley Hospital. I would like to know what that is costing the ACT Government, in terms of wages, supervision and medical indemnity.
MR BERRY: Do you have their names? I do not know their names or addresses, but I will - - -
Mr Humphries: Do you know about them at all?
MR BERRY: I do not check the name and address of every person who is employed, or the daily employment rates. But I will check the information that has been put before the Assembly. Is there a difference between Vietnamese nurses and other nurses?
Mrs Carnell: We want to know why they were put on, if they were, instead of the graduate nurses who you promised would be put on.
MR BERRY: That is another one of your ridiculous allegations, and I will take it with a grain of salt.
Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: I do not believe that the Minister has a right to enter into debate on this question. He was asked a question. He should either answer it or decline to answer it, but he should not enter into debate on it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Berry, would you answer the question, please.
MR BERRY: Graduate nurses continue to be employed on a needs basis. They are selected from applicants on merit, as I said they would be, and that process continues.
Mrs Carnell: Amazingly slowly.
MR BERRY: Nothing is ever fast enough for the Liberals - or slow enough when they are in government. Graduate nurses continue to be employed in the hospital system on a needs basis. You do not employ people when you do not have jobs. We are employing them to fill positions that are vacant, on the basis of merit. That is fine, I think. Is that all right for the Liberals? It is not so bad.
Mrs Carnell: But that was not the question.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked; the question is being answered.
MR BERRY: In relation to nurses from Vietnam, I am prepared to find out the detail of that; but I do not know.
Mr Kaine: It does not matter what country they come from.
MR BERRY: It does to the Liberals, apparently.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .