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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1808 ..

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I will change it to say that the figures would certainly indicate that Mr Berry has misled this Assembly. I am very happy to table the figures.

MR SPEAKER: No; Mr Berry wants you to withdraw the statement.

Mr Berry: You have to withdraw it.

MRS CARNELL: I am happy to withdraw the statement that I made - that Mr Berry misled the Assembly.

MR SPEAKER: And now you want to table the papers?

MRS CARNELL: I am very happy to table the papers which indicate that Mr Berry misled this Assembly.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, she cannot impute that I have misled this Assembly, without moving the motion.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I am willing to withdraw that and say that the figures certainly do not tally with the figures that Mr Berry indicated to this Assembly were true - if that helps those opposite. These 3,749 operations simply do not exist. They are phantom procedures. The then Minister, Mr Berry, was responsible for a cover-up that possibly makes VITAB look even half decent, although that would be pretty difficult.

Let me quote another paragraph of Mr Berry's media release of 24 May:

In her budget speech Mrs Carnell promised that with an additional allocation of $2m, an extra 600 operations would be performed.

He goes on to say:

And what did we get? Over 2,000 fewer operations at Woden Valley Hospital.

Wrong, Mr Berry; wrong! In fact, after the double-counting of day theatre procedures in 1993 and 1994 under the Labor Government has been removed, total surgery has actually increased, Mr Berry, by 1,362 procedures, or more than 9 per cent, from March 1994 to February 1996, compared with the performance over the same period 12 months earlier. In simple language, Mr Berry, under this Government there have been 1,362 more operations at Woden Valley Hospital than there were over a similar period under the Labor Government. We do not have an extra 600 operations, Mr Berry; we have an extra 1,362, by your own figures. I am happy to table the current information. I have already done so. What it shows is more operations, fewer people on the waiting lists and increased admissions, Mr Berry, under this Government. Mr Berry was the Health Minister until April 1994.

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