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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (14 February) . . Page.. 118 ..

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, in the Canberra Times of 9 February the CEO of the Canberra Hospital, Mr Rayment, was quoted as saying that management would have to consider cuts if the nurses did not agree to the government-funded increase. Mr Rayment's words were that management would have to consider cuts if the nurses did not agree to the government-funded increase. Can the minister explain why that is so? Does it mean that if they accept the offer, nurses will be offering up savings in excess of their wage increases? If that is not the case, can the minister advise the Assembly how he proposes to fund the cost of the proposal?

MR MOORE: I asked Mr Rayment to explain that because it made no sense to me that that would be the case. After all, the government has put an offer of money on the table. That is what we did. We said, "Here is the money and this is what we would demand for it." That does not affect jobs. Mr Rayment indicated to me that he felt that his words were not clearly understood by the journalist in writing that and that that was a misrepresentation of his thinking.

Mr Stanhope: So Leah De Forest mucked it up?

MR MOORE: Mr Stanhope may find it very difficult to understand, but sometimes when you talk to a journalist on a wide range of issues with the intention of getting something across the understanding between the two is not quite right. That might be to do with the journalist and it might be to do with you. It has actually happened to me. Sometimes it has been due to the way I said things. I have to say that on those occasions, much as I did not like what was I reading in the paper, I understood why the person thought that way. The most important thing to me is to make it really clear that this offer will not in any way create job cuts or cuts to the hospital; it is an offer of money with some conditions attached to which the nurses can agree or disagree. Those conditions do not include in any way a loss of income for the hospital or a loss of jobs. A couple of other things are very important in that regard.

Mr Stanhope: Has Mr Rayment cleared up this misrepresentation?

MR MOORE: Mr Stanhope, I think that it is really important that we avoid trying in some way to expose a public servant, if that is what you are trying to do.

Mr Stanhope: He said that there would have to be cuts if the nurses did not agree and you are now saying that he was wrong.

MR MOORE: I am telling you that there are not going to be any cuts. I am telling you that the way it was reported, for whatever reason, was wrong.

Mr Stanhope: It would have been good to correct the mistake.

MR MOORE: You have asked in your interjection whether Mr Rayment has corrected that mistake. I will take that interjection, even though I know that you will be very unhappy about that, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: It is out of order.

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