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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2960 ..

MR SPEAKER: I am fast running out of patience, Mr Berry. You have been here long enough to know what a personal explanation under standing order 46 is. Would you please make it.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I think I am probably further ahead than most in this place in my understanding of what a personal explanation is. Mr Speaker, I was misrepresented by Mrs Carnell when she claimed that I had made certain untrue statements about private hospitals in the ACT. She referred specifically to a press release which I will table in due course, along with the other document which I promised to table.

Mrs Carnell: Mr Speaker, this is debating the issue.

MR SPEAKER: Yes. I am still waiting.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell referred to a part in my personal press release.

MR SPEAKER: Keep going.

MR BERRY: It says:

There is no shortage of private hospital beds in the ACT and Mrs Carnell plans to keep the squeeze on our public system to force more and more people into the expensive private sector.

That is true.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Mr Berry is quoting a part of his release which neither Mrs Carnell nor Mr Kaine, who asked her the question, quoted. Mr Berry is using standing order 46 to read into the record assertions in a debate which were not made in the course of the issue referred to in his personal explanation. He should be made to sit down or he should be named.

MR SPEAKER: I uphold Mr Humphries's point of order. What was quoted there was certainly not quoted by Mrs Carnell.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell said:

There is no shortage of private beds in the ACT ...

That is what she said. She did quote that.

Mr De Domenico: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I assume that you stand by your ruling. If you stand by your ruling, Mr Speaker, you should ask Mr Berry to sit down or you should name him.

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