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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1870 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

What we do have, Mr Speaker, is 14 months of deception over the true figures of operations at Woden Valley Hospital. This deception occurred, as Ms Follett said, under both Wayne Berry and Terry Connolly as Health Ministers. But the reality of the situation is that it started under Mr Berry. The surgery figures were available to Mr Berry. The reason I can guarantee that to be the case, Mr Speaker, is that we actually obtained them in opposition. When Mr Berry said, "But we did not publish them", he is half right, Mr Speaker. He did not table them in this place. I think he made those points very clearly on radio this morning. He really did not make available any information when he was Health Minister, so how could anybody get stuck into him?

But the fact is, Mr Speaker, that to publish information does not mean that it has to be tabled in the Assembly. Mr Berry was right that he made it very difficult to get any up-to-date information when he was Minister. Mr Speaker, in opposition, we managed to obtain the information on theatre activity that was published at Woden Valley Hospital and in Health generally. What this information does is give minor theatre, main theatre and day theatre figures right from July 1993 through to July 1994, August 1994, and so on. So, what I have here is theatre activity that was - - -

Mr Berry: It was not tabled before.

MRS CARNELL: I am going to. It is all right. This information was available in July 1994 and before that, Mr Speaker.

Ms Follett: To whom?

MRS CARNELL: To everybody at Woden Valley Hospital and everyone in Health. It was a public document. It just was never tabled in this place. So, to say for a moment that the information was not tabled - or, I should say, was not published - is simply wrong. This is published information, Mr Speaker. So, I am very happy to table the published information on day theatre, main theatre and minor theatre as well. Those papers I have there indicate the figures that existed from 1993 right up until August 1994, Mr Speaker - the times that we are really talking about here. So, that negates the argument that the figures were never published.

Mr Whitecross: Are you going to table that document?

MRS CARNELL: I just did. It is interesting, Mr Speaker, that Mr Berry now seems to perceive that, if he did not make the information available in this place, then he was not responsible for it. That is what he is saying.

This Assembly, as Mr Humphries made very clear earlier, has censured me for accepting a model to work out VMO salaries that was used under the previous Government. That model was never tabled in this place. Mr Humphries made it very clear when he quoted Hansard earlier. I will quote it again. I said:

How was I supposed to know that your cost model was wrong?

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