Page 773 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 2010
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MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Stop the clock.
Ms Gallagher: Mr Assistant Speaker, I think Mr Hanson is predetermining matters which are currently in the coronial process. I would just seek your ruling on that.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, I think the minister has a point. You are sailing very close to the wind. I would urge you to consider what you are saying in the context of the coronial hearing.
Ms Gallagher: He said the hospital infected the baby.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: You have got to be very careful that the things that are said in this place do not appear to influence the outcomes of a coronial hearing.
MR HANSON: Yes, I acknowledge that and I—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: I am asking you to be careful. We will watch it and we may have to pull you up if you—
MR HANSON: I would express that I did clarify my words. I said that the hospital—I corrected myself—had put the baby at risk of TB. I think that that is a very well established fact, and that is why the hospital actually conducted tests.
Ms Gallagher: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: No. Just a minute. Mr Hanson, I am sorry; it was the comments that went on beyond that which are starting to impinge upon the coronial hearing. I would ask you to be very, very careful henceforth.
MR HANSON: The other comments were—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Recommence the clock.
MR HANSON: The other comments were regarding the fact that the baby had been sent the bill for the tests, and that is a fact. The only facts I have made are that the baby was deceased, that the baby was put at risk of infection and that the baby had been taken to the Canberra Hospital when it first became sick. I think that they are all well-established facts. They have been broadly reported. I make no further judgement beyond that; any further judgement beyond that that may be interpreted would be erroneous.
Moving on, though, let me say that we have seen the case of the first swine flu death and the breakdown in communication between the Canberra Hospital, the health department and the family—and so on.
Yesterday we had the motion from Ms Porter on Calvary. We saw the wasted 18 months, the minister distracted by an ideological obsession. That is a very visible example of this minister’s inability to get the job done—a flawed plan very poorly
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