Page 2210 - Week 08 - Thursday, 10 September 1992
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Most of the things that the Opposition has chased up, or chased down, as the case may be, in recent times have in fact proven to be absolutely accurate. They have been denied first by the Government and then proven to be absolutely accurate. I name just three. The announcement by the Opposition of the closure of pathology services at the City Health Centre, denied by this paranoid Government, in fact turned out to be true.
Mr Berry: No, it was not true.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, it was. In respect of the closure of some health services at the Weston Creek Health Centre, the Government said, "No. You are beating it up. You have nothing to run on here. You are making a mountain out of a molehill". In fact, those services were to be closed, and Mr Berry had to reverse that decision. If it had not been brought to his attention by the Opposition, what might have happened?
Mr Berry: Why didn't you ring me up, instead of doing a stunt? I would have fixed it straightaway.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes; we bet. I refer also to the idle speculation that there was going to be a 2 per cent cut in the health budget. I wonder what next Tuesday's budget is going to bring us. I have a funny feeling that we already know much about what is going to happen in the health budget. Mr Deputy Speaker, another example of the siege mentality of this paranoid Government is the release of figures about the performance of the health budget. With great fanfare, Mr Berry announced, "Yes, we are going to give you monthly statements of the figures". When do they come out? When do we actually get them? Every month at about 4.30 to 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, after the media have gone home, after the Canberra Times have packed up, after the television stations have gone following their stories - exactly the time when you hope that the least impact will be made by the announcement of that information. That is the sign of a government which is paranoid. That is the sign of a government which has something to hide. That is the sign of a frightened and furtive government. That is what we have here.
The Canberra Times yesterday accurately described the behaviour of this Government as "tin-pot fascism". Those comments are not lightly made. They are made in circumstances where you know that you bungled, and you bungled badly, because you have escalated a matter which many governments, both in the ACT and elsewhere, have faced over a long period of time into a matter of far more seriousness than it deserved. It has been a long time since any Australian government sent police in to chase down a budget leak - or any other sort of leak, for that matter. Mr Berry said that it was not a raid on the Canberra Times. If sending the police in to seize documents and interrogate people about what had gone on, and coming unannounced, is not a raid, then what distinguishes it from, for example, the famous Murphy raid on ASIO in the early 1970s? What is the difference? There is no difference. It is exactly the same. A raid is when the police come in unannounced and seize documents and interrogate people. That is what happened on Tuesday of this week.
Mr Berry: Go away. They went in with a warrant.
MR HUMPHRIES: You tell me how that is different from what I have just defined as a raid. Then we see this extraordinary memorandum to public servants. Mr Deputy Speaker, we were told today - - -
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