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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1883 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mrs Carnell said:

My understanding is that they had known about it for a period of time.

In other words, Mrs Carnell's officials had known that these figures, which Mrs Carnell had been publishing month after month, were wrong. Mrs Carnell admits that her officials knew that they were wrong yet they allowed her to go on publishing the figures. Everybody in this house, everybody in this community, should be concerned about that state of affairs, and everybody should be concerned about Mrs Carnell's handling of the discovery that this Assembly and this community were being misled.

The fact is that Mrs Carnell should have come in here and said, "I know that Mr Berry has been quoting this figure of 2,000 fewer operations; but I have to confess, embarrassing as it is, that I have discovered that my department made a mistake and has been giving me figures which were wrong. I am sorry. I apologise to Mr Berry; but the figures he has been relying on are wrong, and I will get you a new set of figures which are right". That is what Mrs Carnell should have done. But, Mrs Carnell cannot say those words, "I was wrong". She does not know how to. She cannot say, "Sorry". She does not know how to. Instead of saying, "I am sorry; the figures we have been giving you, the figures we have been publishing, have been misleading", what does Mrs Carnell do? She comes in and tries to blame Mr Berry. She turns it into a cheap political stunt in order to deflect attention from the fact that she has been misleading this Assembly and this community by publishing false figures. What possible explanation could she have for that, Mr Speaker? There is one. (Extension of time granted)

Members interjected.

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, may I take the same point of order again. You did say that members would be heard in silence.

MR SPEAKER: I did. I would also invite members, if they wish to make a contribution to the debate, to stand up and make it, not simply by interjection. It shows a want of knowledge, it seems to me, if you can only interject.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, faced with the fact that, according to Mrs Carnell, her officials had known about this for some time and kept getting her to publish false figures, why did she not just come in here and apologise and correct her mistake? No more would have been said about it. Why did she not do that, Mr Speaker?

Why did she turn it into this major publicity palaver, trying to blame Mr Berry for her deception, trying to blame Mr Berry for her department's deception? Why did she do that? There is one reason, Mr Speaker. It is that Mrs Carnell's Government is an embarrassment. Mrs Carnell, after coming to office promising to cut health expenditure, has presided over a $14.2m blow-out. She has just come back from the Premiers Conference last week with a bad deal from the Howard Government - a government she campaigned to elect. She has had her Minister Mr Humphries make that stupid supermarket decision which is going to cost hundreds of jobs, inconvenience thousands of people and do nothing for small business. We have the planning fiasco.

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