Page 2595 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 October 1992
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It goes on to say - and this is a very important part of this letter, Madam Speaker:
I am pleased to be able to advise you that the Government's Legislation Program for the current sitting of the Assembly includes these amendments.
That was August 1991, last year. He goes on:
I would expect to introduce them into the Assembly later in the year.
That is 1991. That must mean that Mr Berry knew that the legislation was being prepared and was going to be ready to be introduced at the end of last year. Mr Berry now stands up here and says, "It is a very hard thing to do". Of course it is a very hard thing to do. Even Mrs Kirner's Government in Victoria - remember her? - introduced it. New South Wales has introduced it, South Australia has introduced it, Queensland has introduced it; but the ACT has not. The irony is that if I want to buy some hismanal antihistamines because I suffer from hay fever - and many Canberrans do - it is going to cost me about $25 - - -
Mrs Carnell: Six dollars.
MR DE DOMENICO: But I have to go to a doctor as well. It is going to cost me at least $25 to get them in the ACT. If I go to Queanbeyan, though, it will cost me $6.
Mrs Carnell: Eleven dollars.
MR DE DOMENICO: So, it will cost me $14 less in Queanbeyan.
Mr Berry: If you go to a doctor who bulkbills and buy it at a local chemist, it will cost you less.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, it will not. He has got that wrong as well. In the ACT, Mr Berry, you need a doctor's prescription before you can get them. The doctor's bill is $18. Then you have to pay for the pills. In Queanbeyan they cost $11. Eleven is less than 18.
Mrs Grassby: Tony, bulkbilling does not cost you anything with a doctor.
MR DE DOMENICO: There is the parrot at the back again. The facts are that it is cheaper to buy them in New South Wales than it is in the ACT. Mr Berry promised the people of the ACT last year that it would cost them less to buy hismanal, but of course he has not acted yet.
The Liberal Party says, "We have given him enough chance. Let us draft our own legislation". We are told, "Listen, you cannot do that, because the Government has its own legislation coming". We are saying, "Okay, fair enough. We will pull out. Let the Government do it". But the legislation is still coming - and so is Christmas and so is Easter next year. We still have not seen the legislation. In the meantime, we have seen a lot of things that this Government has done. It has banned circus animals; it has increased the potential to have abortions. It has done all these "very urgent" little things that come up from time to time, but if you want to buy some antihistamines to - - -
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