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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 10 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 2635 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Mrs Carnell said, "I would like to provide better health services in places like Belconnen". Well, go for your life. You have our support. It would be the best thing you could possibly do. But you are not going to cut the guts out of health services which are being used in areas like Kippax.

Mr Humphries: That is your prerogative, is it?

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries butts in. Mr Humphries was the last Liberal Health Minister who tried to close the Kippax Health Centre. The Labor Party, in opposition then, campaigned against him and stopped him. He tried to close the Melba Health Centre too, and the Labor Party, in opposition, campaigned against him and stopped him. Let us not hear any more of those silly interjections.

Mr Speaker, clearly, this is a government which is in some sort of ideological time-warp. It just seems interested only in the policies of the AMA when it comes to the provision of medical services. If you wanted to know what Mrs Carnell would do with salaried GP services, all you had to do was ring the AMA, because they do not want them.

Mrs Carnell: That is rubbish. ASMOF were the ones that hassled us.

MR BERRY: She says, "Rubbish! ASMOF have hassled us". ASMOF is slightly different from the AMA. The AMA has been opposed to the salaried medical officers and the bulk-billing services that they provide since the year dot. They have been involved in a caravan of deputations to various Health Ministers to try to cut out the bulk-billing salaried GPs in our health centres. Do not deny it, Mrs Carnell, because they have been in your office too, and succeeded. If you want to know about the Liberal Government's health policies, call the AMA.

I have spoken in relation to the government-owned health centres, Mr Speaker, and I now turn to some of the other promises which were made by Mrs Carnell, which she makes a great deal of noise about. She turned to her statement in the Assembly - of course, she read only part of it - and she talked about full-term staff, long-term casual staff. She now puts a little caveat on them. They have to have been working there for 12 months, so you had to guess before. This is what she said:

... of course, any permanent part-time staff that we may have. They will be able to access the triple R award. They will also be able to access retraining in other parts of Health. There are a number of areas in ACT Health at the moment that could very well do with any staff that do not choose to reapply for jobs under the new management. So those people will certainly be looked after.

"Looked after" has gained a new meaning under this Government. It means they will be dispensed with. There is a new caveat on casual staff. They have to be casual staff for longer than 12 months. Of course, this Government has been back-pedalling ever since those promises were made. We also need to turn to what Mrs Carnell's office has said publicly, as reported in the Canberra Times on 31 August 1995.

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