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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2745 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

This is not the only defect in these figures. Pathology, I think, was also shown to have a nil result for the month. If Mrs Carnell cannot have somebody in her office, or somebody within her department, cast their eye across these figures from time to time before she introduces them in this chamber, or even do it herself, they ought not be introduced, because they are not accurate. They provide no information. They cannot be relied upon. They provide no useful information to this chamber because of the inaccuracy that is built into them. Fancy tabling in this place performance figures, statistics, which are incomplete, and making claims that they give the people of Canberra full information on their public hospital system. She said:

It is keeping with my commitment to give the people of Canberra full information on their public hospital system ...

What a lot of rubbish! It has been misleading from the word go. It has misled this Assembly. Mrs Carnell has a hide to be squealing like a stuck pig about a press release that was put out in relation to evidence that has obviously misled this Assembly. Mr Speaker, I think that Mrs Carnell should have apologised to this chamber for introducing this misleading information. I feel that she is far too arrogant to admit her mistake, and she suffers as a result of that.

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

MR HIRD (5.28): Misleading this Assembly? This man comes into this chamber and says that our Chief Minister has misled. Mr Berry's attempt to criticise our Chief Minister for not releasing information on the performance of the health system is a joke. It is extraordinary that Mr Berry should make such a comment, in view of his own abysmal record as Minister for Health. The fact is that this Government, with Mrs Carnell at the helm, not only as Chief Minister but also as Health Minister, has cut the elective surgery waiting list by more than 700, or 15 per cent.

Mr Berry presided over a health system that trebled the waiting list and blew out its budget every year. Performance figures were never previously issued to the parliament. Mr Berry certainly never released figures. He did not know anything about them. They were all going up. If he had, they would have been inadequate because, as Mrs Carnell has already said, he has shown the Assembly that he cannot count. He doubled his figures. Mr Berry's system, when he was Minister for Health, was mismanagement. He talks about mismanagement. He is the one who mismanaged.

It is a nonsense to say that the paediatrics beds are being shut down. The only beds closed are in the isolation ward, Mr Berry, where there is no longer a demand. Mr Berry talks about shutting down obstetrics beds. Yes, they have been reduced from 60 to 50, again because of the reduced demand. What caused the demand to drop, Mr Berry? Your own party. Labor's previous Health Minister, Mr Connolly, who took

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