Page 2056 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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MR HUMPHRIES: It is time to halt drug crimes. That is why we need a good, sound system which is properly aired in the community and properly considered by the body in this Assembly best qualified to look at this question, namely, the committee which Mr Moore currently chairs. There are two Bills before the Assembly. They are contradictory in nature to some extent.
Mr Berry: In conflict.
MR HUMPHRIES: In conflict, if you like. They should be considered properly by the Assembly committee, the body which was set up to deal with that sort of issue. It seems to me entirely appropriate that it should be referred that way. I cannot understand the Minister's reluctance to see it referred to that committee.
There has been, I have to say, Madam Speaker, a tremendous malice exhibited on Mr Berry's part towards Mrs Carnell and the efforts she has been making in this Assembly to address the real issues facing this community in the area of health.
Mr Berry: Conflict of interest is a serious problem.
MR HUMPHRIES: Listen, Mr Berry; listen, Minister. This might not be pleasant, but listen to it. It upsets Mr Berry that there is someone in this Assembly with better credentials than he has to talk about the concerns of the community in the area of health. She is more qualified and has better credentials to talk about what this community wants and needs in the area of health and health concerns than has the Minister for Health. That disturbs the Minister very greatly.
Mr Kaine: He gets quite agitated about it.
MR HUMPHRIES: He does get very agitated about it. There is enormous hostility flowing from him about this whole issue. I really think it is a little concerning. He should ask himself whether this vendetta against Mrs Carnell is really in the best interests of, for one thing, the health needs of the Territory, and in particular the needs of methadone users in this Territory. Mrs Carnell has raised this question persistently. She deserves to be heard properly on those issues. She has raised this question with the best of intentions. To suggest that she or pharmacists in the ACT have improper motives in wanting to see methadone available around the Territory is quite wrong.
Mr Berry: Madam Speaker, I take a point of order. Again we have heard the big diversion - which I almost called a fib, but I will not - that I had suggested that there was improper motive. What I said, Madam - - -
Mr Kaine: That is what you said.
Mr Berry: I want that withdrawn. I made it very clear. I said that the ordinary person in the street could come to the conclusion, on the basis - - -
Mr Kaine: And that is a bit different. That is dressing it up a little.
Mr Berry: No, there is a lot of difference. The ordinary person could come to the conclusion, given Mrs Carnell's presidency of the Pharmacy Guild, her ownership of a pharmacy and her practising as a pharmacist, that there is a conflict of interest, and I think that is a fair enough assertion to make. It is not - - -
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