Page 2600 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you. Members, from memory, Mrs Carnell was heard in relative silence. Please, let us have a bit of order.
MR BERRY: Aside from the financial data which has been called for by a motion of this Assembly, this is a full report of the activity of Health, which is not provided by other health departments around the country. This is something which has been designed by me and the Health Department. It was put up by agreement between me and Mr Jim Service, the then chairman of the board.
Mrs Carnell: I was chairman of the committee that put it together, Mr Berry.
Mr Connolly: Yes, acting under the Minister.
MR BERRY: Acting under instructions, as the board has had to do. As I said earlier, this is vintage Carnell. This morning she sent up a balloon about the Government's position on the supply of information. It was the same old placebo - all show and no go. There was no substance at all to the claim because there is a constant flow of information to the community through a whole range of documentation that you people seek to deny. You are not going to get away with it. You have not got away with it. You get access through the freedom of information legislation, which you deny you get, as has been explained by Mr Connolly.
Mrs Carnell: We do not.
MR BERRY: If you cannot make out a case for the public interest, Madam Leader of the Opposition, you do not get the fees waived. It is as simple as that. If you do not have financial hardship, you do not get the fees waived. It is as simple as that. If you are not prepared to comply with the law to get access to information, that is just too bad.
Mrs Carnell: I am.
Ms Follett: Special laws.
MR BERRY: As the Chief Minister rightly interjects, you want special laws for Katie. You are not going to get them.
Mr Kaine: You will continue to waive them for me, though. I am in financial straits.
MR BERRY: If you can demonstrate that there is a financial difficulty, Mr Kaine, I am sure that they would be waived; but Mrs Carnell would have some difficulty in demonstrating that because she is paid a lot more than you these days, she has a lot more staff helping her and, of course, she does not spend much time here. She is our only part-time politician.
Mr De Domenico: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, to show how untrue are some of the things that Mr Berry alludes to from time to time, Mr Berry made a statement that Mrs Carnell does not spend a lot of time here.
MR BERRY: That is not a point of order.
Mrs Carnell: It is.
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