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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2014 ..
MR STANHOPE
(continuing):You should visit some of them, Mr Pratt, as you sneer and shake your head. You should see the circumstances of some of those people.
Mr Pratt
: I sneer because it is a red herring, Chief Minister.MR STANHOPE
: A red herring? A red herring to elevate the interests of the catastrophically injured child; the child whose life was destroyed; the child with no quality of life; the child to live without-Mr Pratt
: You are diverting from the substance of the argument.MR SPEAKER
: Order! Mr Pratt will cease interjecting, and the Chief Minister will direct his comments through the chair.MR STANHOPE
: That is the basis upon which this government has pursued these reforms. It is a tough reform process, but it is almost at the point of conclusion. At the end of the day, I think that we, here in the ACT, will have produced the best and most balanced outcome to this major tort law reform exercise of any jurisdiction in Australia.I will stand by the product which we ultimately deliver. It will be the best and fairest of all the regimes introduced around Australia. One of the reasons why it will be the best and fairest is that we did not respond in a knee-jerk way; we were not stampeded; we did not rush in. We climbed into the ring with the insurance companies; we climbed into the ring with all the vested interests of the doctors, lawyers and accountants.
It is interesting to see those who have trooped to my door, and to the door of the Treasurer in relation to this-all the big professions but not many representatives of catastrophically injured children. The people who trooped to my door were insurance companies, lawyers, members of the AMA, members of all the professions, including accountants and auditors.
Mr Smyth
: Is that wrong?MR STANHOPE
: No, it is not wrong, but you need to put some balance into this argument. Every other government responded to that pressure. They responded in a knee-jerk way; they did not go the distance; they climbed into the ring with the insurance companies and the medical profession, got bloody noses in the first round, and their side threw in the towel. That is not how this government responded. We are up to the 15th round and we're still standing. We have fought the good fight-and we are the only jurisdiction that has fought the good fight to the end.MR PRATT
: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Putting the massive diversion to one side, Chief Minister, why have you been so slow in introducing legislation when New South Wales has had strong legislation in place for months?MR STANHOPE
: I answered that question. I answered it quite well, I thought, but I am happy to repeat it. As we all know, it is a fact that there are some wonderful Labor governments around Australia-there are eight of them.
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