Page 3099 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 November 1992
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Mr De Domenico: Why didn't you say so at some of the meetings?
MRS GRASSBY: I would have liked a chance. Unfortunately, I was not given the chance to say so. It is a case of the Liberals getting the answers they do not like and refusing to accept them. That is normal. That is nothing different. We are used to that. We are used to Mrs Carnell getting the answer and, if she does not like it, not accepting it. The situation is completely the opposite of what the report claims. The fact is that the Estimates Committee findings in relation to the Minister for Health are not supported by transcript, even the pages cited in the report.
Madam Speaker, one thing that I really object to is the fact that the press had hold of this final report before I saw it. I think the chair should do something about that. This happened once before in this house. I was on the Hospital Beds Committee in the previous Assembly. Mr Humphries gave the report of that committee to the press before I had seen it and before it was presented in the house. It has happened again, and I think the chair should take responsibility for it and do something about it. She should find out who gave the report out before we had a chance to see it.
Public hearings of the Social Policy Committee were scheduled for the day the Estimates Committee met to discuss its report. Those hearings had been set down weeks and weeks before. We could not have gone through the Estimates Committee report in half an hour when public hearings for the other committee were due and people were waiting for them.
Mr Humphries: You did not even try.
MRS GRASSBY: We were not even given a chance to have another meeting.
Mr Humphries: Yes, you were.
MRS GRASSBY: No, we were not. You voted, and that was it. There was no chance to have another meeting because you did not want another meeting. You decided that that was the way you wanted to go, and that was it. As I have said, the report does not reflect what the Minister for Health said. It just reflects what you wanted to say. I am sorry that you had to be bored out of your mind, Madam Speaker. I do not blame you. Listening to this lot over here, I would be bored out of my mind too.
MRS CARNELL (9.37): Madam Speaker, I totally endorse the Estimates Committee report, but I must admit that I am particularly concerned about Mr Berry's response to this exceptionally useful and constructive document.
Mr Berry: You have not had it yet. You will be more concerned when I am finished.
MRS CARNELL: I am talking about your response in the press. He has charged the Estimates Committee - - -
Mr Berry: Wait until you get my real response. That is the one you will like most.
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