Page 749 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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Mr Humphries: Only four tenderers; just four tenderers. I suppose that is not very much, is it?
MR BERRY: The people of the ACT were not asked whether they wanted the hospital. They want a better public hospital system, Mr Humphries, as has been shown. So the four tenderers are the most important ones, Mr Humphries.
Mr Humphries: You said that there was no interest, but there were four tenderers for the hospital.
MR BERRY: That would be right; worrying about the people who might make a quid out of building it, rather than the people of the ACT.
Mr Humphries: You create jobs by building, by the way.
MR BERRY: You might ask the people who built the massive private hospital on the Gold Coast about the jobs it created. It sits empty. That was a really smart move! That was good for business! Fancy having you in charge of business, encouraging people to build something like that, and it sits there empty. What a joke!
Mr Humphries: Jobs created by the building.
MR BERRY: So we just create jobs to build empty buildings?
Mr Humphries: What do you care if it is empty?
MR BERRY: What do I care if it is empty? What a joke! The hospital that will always be efficient will be the one that Gary Humphries is responsible for - the empty one. Heavens above! I was surprised, I have to say, to hear statements made in the Federal election campaign about buying services from the private sector. If that money is available, I would like to have first bid, quite frankly. If we could get the money, I am sure that we could provide the services as efficiently as the private sector. I will be interested to see how that develops, but there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge as we discuss all of the issues.
Mr Humphries: Are you going to answer the question or not?
MR BERRY: I am telling you - - -
Mr Humphries: The question was: What are you going to do?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Of course, that bit of money will be something of interest to us and, again, it depends - - -
Mrs Carnell: But we do not have any private beds to buy.
MR BERRY: Do you want to wait and listen? Just sit and listen and I will tell you. The Commonwealth have made the offer and I will be interested to see how it pans out in discussions with the States. But the needs of the ACT are different from those of the other States because we have different ratios of public and private beds.
Mrs Carnell: Fewer on both counts.
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