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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 3980 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

wandering around in the darkness behind the stage, which you could see, thank God, because otherwise he would have got restless. But he enjoyed that.

I remember leaving Frank that night. We were going to have a meal at some stage in the future. I was absolutely shocked to hear several days later that the next day, Thursday, he had gone home and had a massive coronary.

The measure of the man could be seen by the people who attended his funeral-people he had grown up with, his family members. I was especially moved by the magnificent eulogies, especially those by his four children. They were quite magnificent and touching to hear. Frank can be so proud of his four magnificent children. To his wife, his children and his extended family, I would like to pass on my condolences. As a member of this Assembly and someone who had a fair bit to do with him when he was principal of Daramalan, I thank him for all he did for education in the ACT and for the magnificent impact he had on thousands of young people, many of whom I know have turned out to be magnificent adults.

Hospital waiting lists

MR PRATT (6.56): Mr Speaker, I rise to respond to a point made by the Chief Minister after question time today, when he indicated that he thought I had misled the house when I asked him a question about misleading the house-if you can follow all that sequence.

MR SPEAKER: I can but just be careful how you use the word "mislead".

MR PRATT: I do not intend to deploy that phrase, Mr Speaker. Let me give my reason for asking that question today and tell you why I was not misleading the house in the question I asked. The Chief Minister, in his response to Mr Smyth's question the other day-that is, the question about the 4,000 waiting list and what the minister's plan regarding that might be-gave figures for the September trend line that are quite unsustainable.

My question today was based on the increasing trend line for waiting lists. The essential point backgrounding my question is that the waiting lists have increased in the first year of the Stanhope government. My question was based on an increasing trend line. I would put it to you that that is not a case of misleading. To support my case, I seek leave to table a graph which illustrates the increasing trend line and includes the period the question was about.

Leave granted.

MR PRATT: I present the following paper:

Elective surgery waiting lists-Copy of graph for the period July 2000 to October 2002.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

The Assembly adjourned at 6.57 pm until Tuesday, 10 December 2002, at 10.30 am.

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