Page 4045 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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basis because to do so will reduce health costs in the ACT. That is beyond dispute. It will reduce health costs in the ACT, and that is not something the Opposition wishes to do. All you are concerned about is continuing the dispute in an attempt to make cheap political points.
The Opposition, for once in its life, should simply shut up, say nothing, and allow the appropriate mechanism for resolving this dispute to be put into place, instead of geeing up the doctors and saying "No; unlike the rest of the community, we in the Opposition believe that you should continue the dispute". That is exactly what you are saying. You have just sat there and said, "Do not go to the Industrial Relations Commission. They should not be going to the commission".
Mrs Carnell: No; they have a right not to.
MR LAMONT: The Leader of the Opposition is saying, "Do not go to the commission". All the rest of your members are saying, "Do not go to the commission". What you are proposing is a continuation of this dispute for your own political ends, and you all should be exposed for that. You will find, Mrs Carnell, that the people in this Territory believe that it is about time changes occurred to the basis upon which VMOs are paid in the Territory. As one example, it is absolutely outrageous that we have somebody contracted as a VMO charging slot fees. Do you know what slot fees are, Mrs Carnell? That is where somebody who is going to be treated as a public patient - - -
Mr Kaine: That is something to do with poker machines.
MR LAMONT: You are dead right; that is where the analogy comes from. It is like playing the poker machines. Whether you can get into hospital depends upon how well you know the person who fixes it half the time. You have visiting medical officers, contracted to provide services in our hospitals, who are saying to public patients, "If you want to guarantee me, a visiting medical officer, to be your doctor when you go in as a public patient, cough up 300 bucks, cough up 400 bucks". That is what is happening, and it is becoming endemic in some of the professions. It is about time that changed.
I would suggest that some of the people who are bleating the loudest are some of the people who are using that very tactic. That is absolutely outrageous. I defy you to support it. I defy the Opposition to support that sort of action.
Mr Cornwell: And I would defy you to prove it.
MR LAMONT: You do not want to do that. All you want to do is sit down the back like Kermit and say, "Prove your case, prove your case". That is all you want to say. You do not want this dispute to be resolved. You do not wish to see a reasonable outcome in our public health system and reasonable charges being paid to the visiting medical officers.
Without question, the basis upon which their contract is set should be a reasonable amount. Take as another example a procedure that once upon a time took an hour and for which they were paid $800. That procedure now takes 15 minutes, but they are still to this day demanding to be paid $800 for it. It is the public purse that has had to provide the technology to allow that to be done, but we have some people saying, "We do not care if the expenditure from the public purse now allows us to do that procedure in 15 minutes, or a couple in an hour; we are going to double up". This is simply not good enough.
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