Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 232 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

I would hope that she would treat her own hopeless Minister in the same way as she treated those from the government benches when Labor was in office. But that was a long time ago. You do not get a life sentence for these things. At the end of the day, the Government is going to have to perform better and at least do some of the things that it screeched at Labor about.

For example, I can recall Mrs Carnell screeching about the 200 or so beds that were going to be lost from the system in the ACT. But did she ever replace them? No, of course she did not. We were going to have 1,000 beds, according to Mrs Carnell. Did we ever get them? No, we did not. We were going to save money. Did we save money? No, we did not. We spent about $80m extra over three years. Of course, it is most important to know that the heaviest influx of that money was before the last election. That is a good reason why you never have Health and Treasury in the same portfolio, because the Health Minister can say, "Ouch, I am hurting", and the Treasurer will say, "Here you are, dear. Here is a little package of money. You can fix it up". That is one of the big mistakes. So, do not ever criticise Labor for its expenditure in the health system.

Ms Carnell: Do you think Mr Kaine would let me do that? He was the Assistant Treasurer. Do you think he would let me? He likes me so much!

MR BERRY: I will touch on a few examples, Chief Minister, just to lay to rest some of the arguments that you have put. Let us not forget that it was this Chief Minister who did the deal with the VMOs that got us into more trouble. So, let us not take too much notice of this Chief Minister. Her crowning glory is to stand up in this place and claim the credit for what others do. Let us think about the methadone program. Mrs Carnell says that she increased it from 80 to 300-odd in her time of office. I am sorry; it was already at least three times 80, or four times, when you came to office after the Labor Government. So, to take credit for what others do, I think, is just a little bit too much. In fact, I think you misled this place; but that is not unusual.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: An allegation that someone has misled the place should be followed by the appropriate motion, as Mr Berry is well aware.

MR BERRY: I will withdraw that.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

Ms Carnell: Mr Speaker, I think it is appropriate to make the point that we expanded the methadone program by 80 places.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Mr Stanhope: A little bit different - only 250 or so!

MR BERRY: They expanded the methadone program by 80 places, not by hundreds. But, of course, what you should have said also is that you privatised a great deal of it, offered a subsidy to the pharmacy industry, of which you are part, and at the same time your Government privatised - - -

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .