Page 2021 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 June 1993
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What is grubby about this whole affair is how Mrs Carnell has fed off it. She has taken every opportunity to drag these two officers into the limelight and to make a public scandal about an issue which was being dealt with in the normal course of their employment. If you want to involve yourself in those sorts of grubby tactics in order to get your name in the paper, you go for your life. You will pay the penalty for it because people will wake up to those sorts of tactics. They are a wake-up to them, in fact. You complain that these officers have been dragged out in public and criticised. It is mostly your doing. My department has not chosen to publicise this issue at all. We have chosen to deal with this issue discreetly within the scheme of management, and deal with it we have. Because it has been a public issue, a brief press release was issued in relation to it on 16 June. In the normal course of events, that would not have occurred either. We would have discovered the difficulties and dealt with them. I should add that this matter has also been drawn to the attention of the Auditor-General, who will investigate processes within the Ambulance Service to ensure that everything is in order. That is the full picture. That is what you asked for; so smile.
MRS CARNELL: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Will the Minister provide all of the documentation of the breakdown of all over-award overtime and penalty payments with regard to this issue?
MR BERRY: No, I will not - - -
Mr Humphries: Oh; a cover-up.
MR BERRY: No, I will not because - - -
Mrs Carnell: You said that it was $20,000 - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: No. I will tell you why. Again, I am not going to get down to the depth that you will go to in dragging the names of these officers into the public arena, when there is no need to do it. What you want to do is make a meal out of this. I suggest that you have had - - -
Mrs Carnell: You said $20,000. Show us how it is made up.
MR BERRY: You have not had just breakfast on this issue. You have had breakfast, dinner and tea. Why do you not leave the officers alone? A proper inquiry has been conducted. The department has made a discovery about some overpayment which will be recovered. The Auditor-General will investigate the matter and report on it. I suggest that you leave the officers alone to get on with their lives. Stop feeding off it, and allow the managers and the Auditor-General to get on with their jobs.
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