Page 2546 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 October 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The thing that concerns me about this is the lack of response. Mr Connolly is usually very decisive. I commented earlier today on the decisive action that he is taking in connection with ACTION buses to get the costs under control, and the fact that the Deputy Chief Minister does not support him in that; but he is very decisive, and I congratulate him for that. But here we have a case where something needs to be done quickly to resolve the differences that exist between these different bodies of professional people and the Minister is saying, "Well, hang on a bit; let us have a couple of reports". It is uncharacteristic of Mr Connolly, because he has it within his power to rectify this.
Mrs Carnell mentioned that, ideally, if we had one single service that delivered all of these services at accidents it would be great. I do not know whether it is possible to do that, because police officers, members of the fire service and ambulance officers each have their own area of expertise. Perhaps you cannot combine them into a single organisation. Perhaps you can, and maybe that is what we should be addressing. Is it possible to establish a single rescue service with all of these people brought into it? They could be rotated through it in some fashion; they do not all have to cease being policemen or firemen. If you establish a rescue service, you can ask for volunteers: Who wants to be a member of this for a two-year, three-year, or five-year period? When you have done your time, you go back to being a policeman or do whatever you want to do. Maybe that is the arrangement; I do not know.
But there has to be a better solution than what we have now. I acknowledge that, and I would like to see something decisive being done in order to sort out the mess. That is not a good word; it is not a mess. There are misunderstandings; there are perhaps professional jealousies as to who is doing what and when and how. That has to be resolved in the interests of the community. It has to be resolved, firstly, because of the people who are involved in these accidents. We do not want ever to get to the point where an injured person does not get the right treatment because there is a dispute. That would be a tragedy and it is something that the community cannot afford.
We also need to do it because we need to get the best value for our dollar. In today's world you cannot afford to duplicate resources. I see these rescue trucks being driven around, one yellow and one blue. They both look much the same. Presumably, they both provide the same service. Yet we have one of each, or two or three of each, I presume. I do not know how many of each we have. It does raise this question in our minds: Are we using our money to the best advantage? Are we delivering the best service at the cheapest price to the community? I do not know the answer to that question either. But those are the sorts of questions that we should be addressing. I would be much happier if I saw Mr Connolly acting in his usual decisive manner and saying, "This is our strategy; this is what we are going to do and we are going to have this fixed inside three months".
Mr Lamont: Done that.
MR KAINE: You have not done that, Mr Lamont. I have seen no such statement. If you can produce one, perhaps you will give it to me later and I will withdraw. I have not seen any such statement from Mr Connolly saying decisively, "This is what we, the Government, intend to do to fix this problem". If I saw that from Mr Connolly I, for one, would be perfectly happy, as I am sure that the members
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .