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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4580 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Quite seriously, on one side, we have a document that cost $55,000, that came out four weeks before the election, and that had the names of the ministry on the second page into the document; and here we have a document from the Canberra Hospital, containing a word from the chair of the board and information about the services that the hospital provides and the great job that a lot of good public servants are doing. I have to tell you, Mr Speaker, that I know which one I would rather have.

MR WOOD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. The Chief Minister has referred to a document put out by the former Government. It was that document, and perhaps others, that inspired the Government to produce all this rhetoric that they now cannot keep up with.

MR SPEAKER: Ask your question.

MR WOOD: My supplementary question, however, relates to the Chief Minister's memory, which is quite good, because she said yesterday that she was not selling something, and she added facetiously, "We are not selling the hospital". Does that not make the point that the hospital is being promoted; it is advertising; it is endorsement; and that is exactly what you said you would not do?

MRS CARNELL: That is not what we said we would not do. I have to say that the only thing in this document that we did not mean to happen, obviously, is the photograph of Mr Humphries - without, by the way, Mr Humphries's name anywhere. And it was a photo picked up out of another - - -

Members interjected.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Both sides of the house will come to order and stop interjecting.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, the photograph of Mr Humphries that was used for the environmental awards was a photo that had already been published by the hospital in an internal magazine called Hospitell earlier in the year. It might have even been earlier that month; but it was certainly a while ago. Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries was not asked, and nor was I, about their lifting that photo. A decision was made internally. But the rest of the publication, Mr Speaker, apart from that one photo, with Mr Humphries's name nowhere near it, is a publication that tells the people of Canberra about the services, the history of the hospital, what is happening with waiting lists, the hospital in the home project, the cardio-thoracic unit, the rehabilitation independent living unit, the community dialysis unit, the adolescent ward and capital works. Mr Speaker it is about accreditation.

I think that a lot of Canberrans would be very interested to know of the achievements that the Canberra Hospital has made over the last 12 months or so. I would have thought that a lot of Canberrans would have been interested in such things as commendations and complaints at the hospital and the fact that the commendations greatly outweigh the complaints.

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