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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (25 February) . . Page.. 386 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

I have is that on most Friday and Saturday nights they did not. My supplementary question is: Will you provide the Assembly with information as to on which nights there were five and on which nights there were four? Can you also explain, for the benefit of the house, what half a crew is?

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure Mr Whitecross's sources would have told him that, if he had been prepared to ask the question. I have already answered your question, Mr Whitecross. I have indicated already that my information differs from yours. My information says there are only 10 shifts to date where there were fewer than five crews.

MR SPEAKER: Order! If you want to have a private conversation, Mr Whitecross and Mr Berry, you might like to go outside.

MR HUMPHRIES: It follows from that, Mr Speaker, that the information Mr Whitecross has presented is different from mine. I do not absolutely preclude the possibility of a mistake; but, obviously, this information was collected for me in the last few days. Given the sensitivity of the matter, I am prepared to stand by it in this place. Let me say that I am quite prepared also to table the details of on which shifts there were which crews. I also indicate to Mr Whitecross and the Assembly that a crew is two people; and that 41/2 crews is when one person is available but another person is not available to make up a full fifth crew. That person is half a crew.

Mr Whitecross: No ambulances?

MR HUMPHRIES: Oh, no; there are ambulances. The ambulance is available. We have plenty of ambulances.

Mr Whitecross: You cannot get an ambulance on the road, with only one person.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right, yes; a single person and an ambulance are available. Since Mr Whitecross raises that issue, it seems to me entirely appropriate that, if one person is available, there is an ambulance available and the person is qualified, that person ought to be on the road. I should put on the record that that is not the view of the Transport Workers Union, which resists the concept of half a crew, even though it is a concept now being widely used in other States, including New South Wales. You would have seen those ambulance motorcycles. That sort of concept is being widely used. I do not know whether a single-person crew might have been able to assist a particular lady who suffered a cardiac arrest in the early hours of last Friday. We have initiated a review of this area so that we can see whether issues like that can be used to address the problems facing our Ambulance Service.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, are you tabling that paper? Did you say you wanted to table that?

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sorry; yes, I table the summary data for the months of October to February.

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