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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 771 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

I would like to finish my comments with a couple of quotes. I want to quote from a transcript of WIN News of 22 November 1993, concerning the former Health Minister, Wayne Berry, to show the attitude that members opposite have to all these sorts of things. He said:

You can't wander around this town with a big smile on your face, saying doctors are very good chaps when you're boring it into the sick and injured. I mean, you just can't get away with that.

That is the sort of industrial relations language for which Mr Berry is very famous and which he has used today in this place. He makes personal attacks on individuals and groups. He does not deal with the facts. That is the simplistic way in which Mr Berry plays politics. Let us have a look at another quote, because a lot has been said about $2m, $1.07m and the like. This is a quote from an article by Chris Uhlmann on Tuesday, 14 March 1995. It reads:

Mr Connolly said the VMOs' current fee structure saw them paid 90 per cent above the national average. The changes he had been proposing as health minister would deliver $4 million in savings while leaving the doctors among the most handsomely paid specialists in the country.

Mr Connolly did not boast about $2m. With the same contract, the same model and the same VMOs, we have $4m. Mr Berry got advice from the department - $1.072m. Mr Connolly quadrupled it, as Mr Connolly was wont to do from time to time.

Mr Moore: Come on! He was talking about different contracts.

MR DE DOMENICO: In a political context, Mr Moore, I acknowledge that; but - - -

Mr Moore: Why did he not sign it?

MR DE DOMENICO: I do not know why he did not sign it. You will have to ask Mr Connolly that. Perhaps Mr Berry did not let him sign it; I do not know. He is not here. I cannot answer that question. So, what it gets down to is this, Mr Speaker: If people have a look at it, they will find that the Auditor-General said, "Yes, in this first year, we are not going to get the $2m savings". He did not say that we are not going to get any savings at all. The fact is that there was a projected saving out of the VMO contract of about $200,000. But the Auditor-General did say that in years to come, in the future, if we let good administration run its line, savings will occur. He was looking at only one area - the VMO contract. He acknowledged that in his report. So, what I am saying to members opposite is: Do not come into this place and waste our time by putting on censure motions to make great headlines. Their idea is to do it early so that they can get on television, so that it gets onto the 12 o'clock news on the radio. They say, "Let us do it. It is the last day. We have to try to make Mr Whitecross look good. Although it is very hard to do that, let us do it anyway. We have picked out this thing. Let us quote half-truths out of it. Let us blend them in with some personal attacks on Mrs Carnell and anybody else that wants to get involved and gets in the way.

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