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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3698 ..

Mr Berry: That is untrue.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is not untrue. Mr Speaker, virtually every aspect of the hospital continued to operate and a decision to continue the - - -

Mr Whitecross: "Virtually".

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right; virtually every aspect of the hospital continued to operate and would have operated had the Labor Government decided to honour their own promises, made only a few weeks before, by introducing a Bill to save the hospital and keeping it open. It is true that contracts were signed to commit work on the Woden site; it is true that that happened. They were not signed by me; they were signed by people under me, but they were certainly signed. Mr Speaker, let me say, in respect of that, that getting out of those contracts would have cost the ACT several hundred thousand dollars; there is no doubt about that.

Mr Berry: Sixteen million dollars.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is not the case, and you know it is not the case, Mr Berry. My advice was several hundred thousand dollars. That is a lot of money. It is a lot of money indeed. Of course, if you were going to keep the hospital open, there is a much more significant cost to consider, and that is the $5m to $10m in recurrent expenditure each year that it would have cost to keep the hospital open. That is not my figure; that is Mr Berry's figure, produced by the Kearney inquiry in 1989. Mr Speaker, let us put to bed once and for all this pathetic little myth. I do not back away - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 77.

Motion (by Mr Moore, by leave) agreed to:

That the time allotted to Assembly business be extended to allow the conclusion of the debate on Assembly business, order of the day No. 3.

MR HUMPHRIES:: I just want to say, very briefly, that the difference between Mr Berry and me is that we both had a hand in closing the hospital; but I do not shy away from that, whereas Mr Berry does.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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