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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1862 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mrs Carnell saw those figures initially and, as Minister for Health, was puzzled by them. Her indication was that throughput was increasing and the waiting lists were coming down, but there was some anomaly as to why this was occurring. She went back to her department and asked why it was that there appeared to be a decline in procedures, despite the increase in throughput and the dropping off of the waiting lists.

What she found out was that for each month between November 1993 and December 1994 - Mr Berry can confirm that that was the case; he now knows that it was true - in 13 months under the Labor Government the number of day procedures being carried out in the public hospital system was double-counted under the heading "Main Theatre Procedures". They were double-counted.

Mr Berry: Who said that?

MR HUMPHRIES: The hospital produced those figures under you, Mr Berry.

Mr Berry: You said that I knew that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, you did know it, because of the standard that you yourself have applied in this place. You are imputed to have known that fact because you censured Mrs Carnell earlier this year on the basis of what she was imputed to have known about the VMO contracts. Mr Berry, that is your standard. You set that standard. You were the taskmaster on that occasion. You were the one throwing thunderbolts from your position on the Opposition bench, claiming righteousness on those matters. I will come back to that matter and prove it.

I take it from Mr Berry's interjections in this place, and those of his colleagues, that they concede that there was double-counting going on.

Opposition members: No.

MR HUMPHRIES: They might be prepared to pretend that they do not know, but they do know now that those figures were double-counted at that stage. What that means is that the number of main theatre procedures reported in the Woden information bulletins for those years is incorrect. For both of the 1993-94 and 1994-95 years - - -

Ms Follett: Who published them?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry published the figures for 1993-94. He was Minister for Health. Those figures are not correct; in fact, they are misleading - misleading of this community, misleading of this house. Those figures were produced in this house. Those figures were produced in this house by Mr Berry and relied upon. What they actually mean is that, for almost six months while Mr Berry was Minister for Health, and for a further seven months under his successor, Mr Connolly, the total number of operations was artificially inflated by a massive number.

The question is, of course, whether this was a deliberate act by Mr Berry or an omission on his part. I would argue that either way Mr Berry is responsible for those figures, because they were published under him.

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