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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2108 ..

MR BERRY: We have slid backwards ever since. Mr Humphries interjects, "Yes, sure", which is a rather feeble defence when you consider the facts. Mr Speaker, in the first place, if Mrs Carnell says that something will happen, we have all learnt to understand that it may not. In principle, this program is a good idea, if the right sorts of patients are taken home early, if they receive the right sort of care and if they are comfortable with it. I note that Mrs Carnell says that this will be against a background of informed consent. I trust that that will be the major emphasis of the policy; but I know that in some of these early discharge programs, depending on how many people are in the hospital, staff tend to encourage people to leave earlier, if there are lots of people in the hospital and lots of people wanting to get into the hospital, than they do if there are empty beds.

Mrs Carnell: You do not know what you are talking about.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I think Mrs Carnell said that I would not know what I was talking about. Mrs Carnell is kidding herself. I started off the first early discharge program in the Territory. If she wants to open her mouth about who knows what about anything, she is talking to the right fellow, because I do know a bit about these things, having had responsibility for them in the past. I do not trust the Liberals on the delivery of health care, and neither does the community.

Mr Humphries: That is why they elected us.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries interjects, "That is why they elected us". The community did not elect them to government. They needed the help of others.

Mr De Domenico: What percentage of the vote did you get?

MR BERRY: Mr De Domenico has just made an interjection. He would not answer questions in question time, but he wants to interject when other people are making a contribution to the debate.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Relevance, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: It would be far better if Mr De Domenico answered the questions that are put to him and kept quiet when other people are speaking. Mr Speaker, this is a pilot program that is to be supported in principle, but to be concerned about by the community, given the background of the Liberals' management of health in this place.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (4.49): Mr Speaker, I would like to make a little comment - and, of course, Mr Berry leaves, as he always does. He throws out a few venomous words and then he runs away because he does not like to hear his arguments being torn apart. I understand. Bye-bye, Mr Berry. Mr Speaker, I think, whereas Mr Berry is entitled to have a go at the Government, as he invariably does - apparently, we can do nothing right in the area of health - it is unfortunate that he uses the vehicle of the hospital in the home program to make that kind of attack. This program is a significant one, both for reducing the costs of running the health system - we make no bones about that - and for providing people with acute care in an appropriate setting.

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