Page 1647 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 18 May 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I do not want to dwell on it, because I have to say that I think that the Government deserves credit for having made this change of decision. It is extremely timely. It is extremely important. As a person who hopes to be re-elected next year, I welcome a development which will potentially remove some of the problems the health system is facing and give people a little more confidence that local politicians have some capacity to face up to, and deal with, the serious problems that our health system has been experiencing over the last five years. In that respect, I sincerely welcome a development which means that finally we are able to deal with those problems on a rational basis rather than on an ideological basis.
To pretend, as Mr Lamont has pretended, that there is in fact no change of direction at all on the part of the Government, simply a slight adjustment of the dials on the vehicle, is really quite extraordinary. I quote as my authority for that fact the things that Mr Berry himself has said about this matter of additional private hospital beds. Mr Berry is quoted in the Canberra Times of 10 May - - -
Mr Connolly: You do not want to labour the point, but - - -
MR HUMPHRIES: I would not have had to raise this if there had not been an amendment; but there is an amendment before the Assembly and I want to speak against the amendment by indicating that, frankly, it is appropriate to make reference to the fact that this is a backflip. This is a change of Government policy and it is based on sensible premises, but we on this side of the house ought to take a little bit of credit for having said for the last five years exactly what Mr Connolly has now said in the last two weeks.
The arguments that I heard Mr Connolly use on the radio about two weeks ago are identical to the arguments that have been put by this side of the chamber for the last five years. These are the arguments: We need to take pressure off the public hospital system; clearly there is a high level of private health insurance in the ACT - how many times have we said that? - there is a low level of private bed use in the ACT; there is an anomaly between those two factors; clearly the answer is to give more options for people who have private health insurance and want to take advantage of those arrangements. They are exactly the arguments that we have been putting and they are exactly the arguments that have now been accepted by the Government. That is a backflip.
Mr Berry confirms that it is a backflip. He said on 10 May to the Canberra Times that he had spent too much time fighting the Liberals' wish to have more private beds to give up on the issue because he is now a backbencher. The Canberra Times states:
"The issue of a strong public hospital system is something I hold pretty close to my heart, and I am not going to go quiet on it," Mr Berry said.
Mr Connolly reacted:
I refrained from commenting on his stewardship of the health portfolio when he was minister, and I would have appreciated the same courtesy.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .