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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1878 ..

Mrs Carnell: But they were.

MR BERRY: They were never used. What an outrageous and shallow argument! Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell suggests that, if I did not double-count the figures deliberately, I was incompetent. Mrs Carnell herself just admitted that they were Woden Valley Hospital figures, not mine.

Mr De Domenico: You were not responsible, then?

MR BERRY: I was responsible for this, because I had been directed by the then Assembly to produce them, and I did. Mr Speaker, if it was within my power to alter the way that these things were done in the hospital which was proven to be incorrect, then, of course, I would have done it, had it been brought to my attention. It still gets back to this point: I am not the one who released these figures and claimed that they were gospel. Mrs Carnell is. And she is the one, in effect, who has misled this Assembly and misled the community. So let us work out who should be censured here. (Extension of time granted)

The question that she has to be asked is: If, in two months on the job as Opposition health spokesperson, I could see that there was a problem with the operations figures, why could Mrs Carnell not see it? Two months on the job, and I could pick it up. The Chief Minister did have these figures. She had been seeing these figures and releasing them every month for 14 months. Every month for 14 months, she was bringing them in here and saying that they were gospel. As soon as somebody takes them up and says, "She has mucked it up badly", all of a sudden, she is stung by a press release which is based on her misleading information in this house and she gets a little bit upset by it. Well, Mrs Carnell, it does not wash. Mr Speaker, why did the Chief Minister not ask in February last year what was going on?

Mrs Carnell: Because we knew what was going on.

MR BERRY: Well, what about March, or April, or May, or June, or July? Did you not have a look at the figures and see that you were down and your operations were falling apart? That is what opposition spokespeople do. They have a look at these things. That is how I discovered that there was a problem. Do you not even look at your own stuff? You do not even look at your own stuff; but you table it in here and expect everybody to take it as gospel. They are your figures when you produce them in this place, Mrs Carnell. Never let it be said otherwise. So, in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November or December, or this year in January, February, March, April or May, it seems that if I had not brought this issue to Mrs Carnell's attention she would never have discovered anything. And, Mrs Carnell, you accuse me of incompetence!

There are a number of other questions raised by the claims that Mrs Carnell has made. In relation to a briefing, Mr Speaker, I will table a letter which clearly points out that I wrote and asked for a briefing last evening.

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