Page 1658 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
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MR BERRY: Do not be silly. This is the sort of stupidity that we have in approaching these issues, which makes it very difficult to sort out these sorts of very serious problems for the community. If you want to politicise this sort of issue in the community, let us know about it. If it seems as though you do, we will draw the line there and leave you out of the argument.
Mr Kaine: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. It seems to me that the Minister is making a travesty of question time. He was asked a question yesterday that he declined to answer and now, in answer to a dorothy dixer from a member of the Labor Party, he is making a ministerial statement. There is provision elsewhere in the agenda of the Assembly for ministerial statements, and I suggest that he should confine them to that time.
MR BERRY: Again, Mr Kaine is wrong. He said that I was asked a question that I declined to answer. I did answer it yesterday, so Mr Kaine is wrong.
Mr Kaine: Well, why are you answering it again today? You are taking cheap political points, Minister.
MR BERRY: Who asked the question first? Who tried this issue on first?
Mr Kaine: Mrs Carnell asked the question and you did not answer it.
MR BERRY: If you want to be left out of the debate on dealing with HIV/AIDS, we will draw the line right there and we will cut you right out. It is a good thing that we would do that, because it is the only way that we are ever going to deal with it. Amateurs like you people ought to be left out of the debate. If you do not understand the issues that face the community, keep out of it.
This Government is dedicated to controlling the spread of AIDS. We are not interested in the sort of stuff that you lot are on about. We do not believe that it should be done by breaching the privacy of people living with HIV/AIDS. I said that yesterday; I will repeat it today. We will continue to deal with it in a responsible way. I said yesterday that Mrs Carnell suggested that in some way doctors may have been directed to break the law. That is a silly notion. What we are concerned about and what we have always been concerned about is dealing with the issue. What we want to do is sort out what is accepted by all as a complex matter.
As a result, the regulations will be amended. It is anticipated that the new regulations will be tabled in the budget sitting. Until the regulations are amended, the current list of notifiable diseases retains acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS. This will be deleted and replaced by HIV at all stages. But beating up a storm on the issue, by claiming that a group of women or anybody else is being threatened by the actions of the Government, is absolutely outrageous political point-scoring. It does not lead us anywhere. What we are on about is dealing with an issue which even the Liberals might accept is a risk to the community. It is a grave responsibility for a government and, dare I say it, an opposition to deal with as a matter of public health. We intend to do that.
Motion (by Mr De Domenico) agreed to:
That the document quoted from by the Minister be presented.
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