Page 4470 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mrs Carnell: But you have already said on radio this morning that you have rejected what they said last night.
MR BERRY: Hang on, hang on! Were you asking the question or was Mr Humphries? Mr Humphries presumes that the dispute is a matter for the long haul. I should say that in the meeting with the AMA today I drew their attention to last week's decision of this Assembly, which called on visiting medical officers to end the strike and go back to work, to go to arbitration to settle this matter. I informed them that I would be bound to take note of the Assembly's decision. I also informed them that it was passed without dissent, and they were most impressed.
The issue is entirely hypothetical. I will say that from the outset I have said to the public hospitals that public patients are not to be used as pawns in this game and that all patients who go into the public hospital system should have entry into the system as public patients, so that we do not have public patients being used as part of this process, as occurred in 1987.
Mrs Carnell: What happens with private patients?
MR BERRY: They can be booked in as public patients and have the service entirely free.
Mr De Domenico: They cannot have it at all. They have to go to Sydney.
MR BERRY: No. If they go in as private patients it will cost them; if they go in as public patients they will get it for nothing, so they are better off.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Is it true that the Minister has directed that private patients are precluded from using Calvary Public's obstetric facilities?
MR BERRY: No; I have said that all patients who use the public hospital system will be treated as public patients.
Bus-Stop Locations
MS SZUTY: My question without notice is to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. I gave Mr Connolly notice this morning that I would be asking him this question this afternoon. It was reported yesterday in the Tuggeranong Valley View newspaper that the bus-stop located in an 80 kilometres per hour zone on the corner of Athllon and Learmonth Drives may be dangerous and may need to be relocated. I also note that the provisions for buses to have right of way when leaving bus-stops to re-enter traffic will become law in the next few days. Can the Minister inform the Assembly as to the reason why this bus-stop "looked better on paper", to quote Mr Tony Gill, roads and traffic supervising engineer, in the Valley View, "and may now be unsafe"? Are other bus-stops in 80 kilometres an hour zones being reviewed to ensure that they are safe?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Ms Szuty for her question. If the Liberals had not all asked two questions we would have got to it earlier. I was made aware of the concerns of the community about this bus-stop some time ago by Ms Ellis, who keeps a close watch on events in Tuggeranong. We were having a look at this when I saw the piece in the - - -
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .