Page 4289 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 1993
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to work, if they had an interest in patient care, and those outstanding issues could be negotiated. The commission has also offered to help in that process. I have promised that anything they gain as a result of that process will apply retrospectively from the date of the contract. It is very clear that they will not be disadvantaged by returning to work. There is no disadvantage in returning to work. They get a generous contract. Anything that is outstanding will be properly assessed, and they will get anything over and above the contracts.
This gets us to the question: What is really driving this dispute? There are a few facts I might draw your attention to. The fact that doctors have refused to work certainly suggests that they are not particularly interested in their patients, not interested in patient care. Each day we see a train of their patients going interstate as a result of the doctors' actions. I also had a quick read through the Canberra Doctor and came across some information that might be of interest. The president-elect is reported in the May edition of the Canberra Doctor as saying that his main aim is to arrest the political decline of doctors, and the current dispute suggests that he is doing that. He adds, "and, of course, a satisfactory resolution of contract negotiations". He said that in May. That means a blank cheque, it seems. Well, there are no blank cheques available. The current president, Dr Hurwitz, in his president's report, which is on the public record, says:
For the private system to remain viable it must be supported and to this end I would like to remind people to admit as many people who are privately insured as possible to the private hospitals.
Of the doctors elected to the AMA branch council, one other says that he is there to ensure that the conditions obtained by - - -
Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: The Minister was asked a specific question. I notice that he is reading from copious notes, so it was clearly a dorothy dixer. I do ask that you direct the Minister to answer the question and not waste the time of this Assembly with a lengthy ministerial statement.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, I am sure that Mr Berry has heeded your advice.
MR BERRY: He wants to ensure that the conditions obtained by sessional VMOs are not eroded. So it is an issue of money. Another doctor talks of the contract negotiations, saying that the AMA will be speaking on behalf of its members. The problem is that they say that they are not speaking on behalf of their members, they are speaking on behalf of themselves, and their members have their own separate decisions to make.
One of the most difficult issues in this whole campaign has been to nail anybody down. In the six months of negotiations that have occurred, we have kept returning to day one: "We want everything we have. We want it indexed. We want the gold pass. We want the blank cheque". These days nobody gets it. No matter how many times my officers have told them that things have changed, no matter how many times I have told them that we cannot afford it, they still keep going back to the blank cheque and saying, "Unless you pay, we are going to squeeze you". Some of them are on the public record on that score.
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