Page 662 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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the very real public health problems that smoking is causing - actually addresses the problems that beset health. It does not address the problem that numbers of people in the ACT community do not have access to proper health services. There is not one piece of legislation there that in any way addresses hospital waiting lists, or the lack of hospital beds. There is also no comment on those in the Chief Minister's speech. So I assume that that means that they are not a priority for the future in health.
Ms Follett: You are wrong.
MRS CARNELL: Well, it is not in there anywhere.
Ms Follett: You are wrong, which is the usual case.
MRS CARNELL: It is not there. You have not made a comment about it. The legislative program is headed up by legislation relating to an Independent Health Complaints Unit. A health complaints unit is particularly important for any system. To operate properly we really have to give consumers an opportunity to put forward their complaints. One of the great problems with the way that Mr Berry has chosen to put forward this proposal is that he has decided to set up a new bureaucracy around the Independent Health Complaints Unit and not to get rid of any of the complaints units that currently exist. So all we end up with is a new complaints unit on top of all the old ones - not a more efficient one, not one that necessarily reflects the concerns of the community and not one that actually in any way improves health. I certainly hope that that is wrong. I certainly hope that that is not what Mr Berry chooses to do. But, from his past comments, I have to assume that that is the case.
The next cluster of legislation was brought about by mutual recognition - something that certainly was not initiated in the ACT, but something that we totally support. Unfortunately, all these amendments were supposed to have been in place by 1 March; but, of course, we were far too busy getting rid of the Board of Health to bother about bringing forward legislation that the Chief Minister had undertaken at the Heads of Government Meeting to have in place by 1 March. So there is a bit of a failure there. Next is the psychologists and podiatrists registration legislation. These issues have been on the agenda for so long that I cannot remember how long they have been there. Certainly, no government has managed to achieve this. It would appear that we might now actually get them up. But why? Because of mutual recognition legislation. Again, both pieces of legislation we had undertaken to have in place by 1 March, but they are still not even tabled. Food legislation, of course, is particularly important; but, again, it is a matter which has been around for so long. So, on the list goes. None of these pieces of legislation in any way addresses the very real concerns.
I think it is hard not to make a comment about the proposed amendment to the Radiation Act 1983. My understanding is that the legislation has probably been drafted since 1991; so why, in heaven's name, it is still down as a second priority is totally beyond me. Mr Berry also seems now to have become substantially less confident that sports drug testing legislation is appropriate. That was first priority legislation last year. It is now a second priority.
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