Page 269 - Week 01 - Thursday, 24 February 1994
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Mrs Carnell: It is stupid.
MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says, "It is stupid". That shows you a measure of the understanding - - -
Mrs Carnell: You have surgeons who want to operate.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says, "You have surgeons who want to operate". Surgeons always want to operate on as many people as they can get their hands on. There is no question about that, because it is all about throughput and the making of income as far as they are concerned. We have to run an efficient public hospital system. One of the measures that we are able to employ is the common rostered day off. A range of people are able to take their day off on the same day. Maintenance, cleaning and all those sorts of things can occur on those days and it is more efficient to do it that way. Mrs Carnell would not understand that. Mr Humphries does not understand that. He is trying to make a big measure out of it. It is a sensible efficiency measure, and it will be persisted with because it is sensible.
Mr De Domenico: It is like Ros Kelly taking a day off from question time.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: I am sorry, Mr Humphries; it is impossible to hear you. Could we have a bit of order, Mr De Domenico.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask the Minister: What sort of conscience does he have that would allow surgery-free days to occur in the region's principal hospital while 3,688 people are awaiting surgery - an increase of 106 per cent since he became Minister? Does he feel better now?
MR BERRY: I can say to you that I have a far, far clearer conscience than the surgeons who went on strike for five weeks and caused a big increase in that waiting list. Mr Humphries never criticises the people who refuse to take people off the waiting list while they are on strike. Why do you not get out and criticise them? My conscience is clear because we have a commitment to the people of the ACT that we will treat 50,500 people this year. We are going to be prevented - - -
Mrs Carnell: And no more.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: We have been provided with money to do that. We are being prevented from doing that now because of the lost productivity which was caused by the doctors strike. Of course, the Liberals will always defend those people in the medical profession who went on strike, because they will always defend the well off and privileged. They always do. There is no concern amongst the Liberals opposite for those people who were affected by the doctors strike, some of whom are now extra people on the waiting list. Mrs Carnell laughs. She thinks it is a great big joke; it is a great big joke that those people are affected by the doctors strike. It is not a joke, Mrs Carnell, and my conscience is clear.
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