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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1879 ..

Mr Humphries: To whom?

MR BERRY: To the head of the Department of Health. I was informed that I could not be briefed yesterday.

Mrs Carnell: That is rubbish. You asked for stuff that had to be got out of the archives, and we said that we would get it out overnight and get it to you this morning.

MR BERRY: I was informed that I could not be briefed yesterday. So, let us not try to re-create history. Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell claims that there was a period of double-counting. We are yet to see the evidence of that. Mrs Carnell has not come forward with the advice from her department on this issue and she - - -

Mrs Carnell: I gave you the figures they produced.

Mr Whitecross: No advice, though.

MR BERRY: No advice in relation to the matter. I am pleased that you raised those figures, Mrs Carnell, because all they are is the doctored information bulletin figures where you subtract some notional day theatre figures from the overall figures. Mrs Carnell, I want to see the advice. Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the letter to which I referred.

Leave granted.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, this issue is nothing but a publicity stunt. One thing you know in this place is that, if you are doing well in opposition, the Government is likely to point the gun at you. Those are the strategies that we live with in politics. When Mr Humphries comes in here and claims that I have misled the Assembly as a result of some figures that have been dug up from Woden Valley Hospital, he has to be kidding himself. I have not misled this place. What I have done, Mr Speaker, has been to draw attention - in a stinging press release, I admit - to a whole host of figures which were produced by Mrs Carnell, month after month. It has yet to be proven that the figures were wrong.

So, Mr Speaker, for Mrs Carnell to propose a censure motion against me is an outrageous misuse of parliamentary procedure, because there is no evidence. Mrs Carnell herself admits that there is no evidence. She said herself that the Woden Valley Hospital working document figures had never been tabled in this place, and they never were by me. Mr Speaker, I drew attention to the quarterly activity reports that were produced by me. They were the only figures that were tabled in this place in relation to the performance of hospitals while I was Health Minister. I stand by them until proven wrong on the issue. Mr Speaker, this is a dopey motion, and it ought to be defeated.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

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