Page 4028 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 16 December 1992
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MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, I initially asked four questions. Did the law in the ACT require the reporting of HIV/AIDS? Was Wayne Berry responsible, as Health Minister, for upholding this law? Was Wayne Berry aware of this law, or should he have been? Did Wayne Berry fail to uphold this law? I added a fifth question: Did Wayne Berry mislead this house? The law was clearly stated by the director of the legal branch of the ACT Health Department in 1985. He stated:
I confirm my recent verbal advice to you that your press statement that only type "A" AIDS is notifiable in the ACT is not supported by the regulations.
Ms Follett: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. I refer again to the relevance of Mr Stevenson's remarks. He is quoting from the 1985 document. I had asked him to address his own motion.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, that was the point of the point of order before. Even if you are talking about the law, you have to refer to the law that applied when Mr Berry was Minister, and make that connection.
MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, the law has not been changed.
Ms Follett: Yes, it has.
MR STEVENSON: The law had not been changed.
Mr Connolly: And he was Minister at the same time?
Mr De Domenico: And you are a dill, because you do not know what you are on about.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please!
Mr Connolly: Is an interjection, "You are a dill and you do not know what you are on about" appropriate in a parliamentary context?
Mr De Domenico: Well, you are. That is right, so sit down.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, please! I think you are pushing the limits of parliamentary language a little. Mr Stevenson, would you focus your remarks?
MR STEVENSON: On 2 December 1991 Mr Berry wrote to Dr Proudfoot and acknowledged receiving the doctor's letters. He was well aware of the doctor's statements on the matter. Mr Berry stated:
The intention in the meantime is to amend the Regulations to make all stages of HIV notifiable in coded form ...
The clear assumption to draw from that is that they needed to be amended to bring that about. Of course, that was the case because priorly it had to be notified in full.
Mr Connolly: That is what you say.
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