Page 2689 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 October 1992
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Mr Berry: I raise a point of order. This is a personal explanation, not a debate about things that were said in the course of debate yesterday.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Berry, I will listen carefully. Mrs Carnell, please proceed.
MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry misunderstood the document I tabled and placed the wrong emphasis on what I had said. What I was trying to do was show that the vast percentage of the accidents listed would not have been stopped by the implementation of the occupational health and safety legislation - that is, that they were not due to an unsafe workplace. I do not believe that it is appropriate to use Assembly time now, though, to have an argument on which of the accidents listed happened to be inside and which happened to be outside the workplace. I can assure the Assembly that it is more than the four Mr Berry quoted. In my view, it is a large percentage.
Mr Connolly: You did not say "a large percentage". You said - - -
Mr Berry: You said that the vast percentage of those happened on the way to or from work.
Mr Connolly: It was four out of 30; now nine out of 30. Liberal mathematics.
MRS CARNELL: The Assembly may also be interested to know that the total cost of those accidents was in excess of 60 per cent of the total paid out.
Mr Cornwell: Think of it in terms of the unemployed, Mr Connolly. You will understand what we mean.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
Mr De Domenico: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. I am finding it very difficult to listen to what Mrs Carnell has to say.
MADAM SPEAKER: Yes, Mr De Domenico, I was in the process of trying to sort out just who has the floor. Order!
MRS CARNELL: Unfortunately, these figures do not give great hope to Mr Berry's statements that workers compensation premiums will reduce due to fewer payouts. I certainly restate that I had absolutely no intention of misleading the Assembly.
There is one other area that I would like to bring up at this stage. Mr Berry stated:
Mrs Carnell is prepared to sack her workers so that she does not have to have a safer workplace.
I would like to make it clear to the Assembly that the workplace that my employees work in is safe at this stage. In fact, we have never had an accident at Red Hill Pharmacy, which makes Mr Berry's statements stupid.
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