Page 1180 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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MR STEVENSON: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I put specific questions on notice in great detail in a matter of public importance. The Chief Minister and the Attorney-General said that they would look into the specific questions I raised. That is what I did. I can go through the whole lot again, but there is not time. But I am concerned about the action.
Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. This is hardly a supplementary question.
MADAM SPEAKER: You are out of order, Mr Stevenson.
Cardio-Thoracic Unit
MRS CARNELL: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health, Mr Connolly. On 16 September 1993 Mr Berry told the Assembly:
This Government started up the process to establish a cardio-thoracic unit. We are the only ones that will carry it through.
Currently, 350 people are being sent to Sydney for cardio-thoracic surgery every year. Cardio-thoracic surgery is also an essential element of a clinical school for Canberra, something that the Minister spoke very eloquently about this week. Yet recently the Government decided to commission yet another consultancy into the provision of cardio-thoracic surgery. Minister, no staff have been recruited to the unit and no concrete plans are in place. What is the Government doing to fulfil the commitment made by Mr Berry and your Government?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I enjoy being read Mrs Carnell's press releases in the Assembly during question time. It always adds a touch to question time. Yesterday the Burmah Oil press release failed dismally in the public record. What is happening with the cardio-thoracic unit? Mrs Carnell says, "Spend it. Do it, do it, do it". The advice I get - and I think it has been aired in the public domain - is that we are talking about $3m to $4m for current expenditure to start something - - -
Mrs Carnell: It is $1.9m in the first year.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, in the first year, but when the unit is set up it will be of the order of $3m to $4m. It will be a very expensive, massive investment of ACT taxpayers' dollars if we are to go down that path. We are quite sensibly seeking the best advice possible before going off on cheap little gimmicky promises, for which Mrs Carnell has developed a reputation. I am currently awaiting a report, which is the one that Mrs Carnell referred to, commissioned by Mr Berry from, I think, experts from Brisbane. To my recollection, they were basically asked whether, for a community of this size, with its feeder district which takes the community up to half a million people, a cardio-thoracic unit is - - -
Mrs Carnell: Mr Berry said that he would carry it through.
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