Page 3395 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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Basically the Greens were saying that they are really worried that if Mr Buchanan was to appear before a committee the government would really go after him and give him a hard time.
What an extraordinary admission—that this government behaves in such a way, is so bullying, that we do not want to have an open inquiry because we do not want the government to bully someone. That is no reason not to have an inquiry to get to the bottom of this matter, to understand the truth. It is quite clear that something very wrong has gone on in this circumstance. We do not fully understand what it is, but we have got Mr Buchanan, superintendent of the jail, on one hand saying that he had been denied due process. We have got no case to answer against him in terms of any criminal proceedings. We have got a person who is saying that in part he was sacked because he disagreed with the government policy. And we have got a minister saying that, no, he was not sacked; it was all by agreement.
In the circumstances of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, which has been plagued by problems—problems that Mr Buchanan was called in to resolve, and, according to Mr Hamburger in his report, was resolving—we need to get to the bottom of this. The only way we can do this in an open fashion is through a review and inquiry in the Assembly. If you look at what Ms Hunter will say in her motion later on today—it talks about the principle of a public right to know. In this case, with all of the smear that has gone on against Mr Buchanan, he has the right to know what has happened. We have the right to know what has happened and he has the right to clear his name.
I call on members to support my amendment.
The second part of my amendment relates to the tabling of documents relating to Debbie Scattergood and her mistreatment by the ACT government. We need to have those documents. I have no doubt that others will talk to that issue as it moves forward.
In relation to the bullying at Canberra Hospital, it was a well made out case. Let me make it very clear that, when it came to that bullying, Katy Gallagher buried that as deep as she could. She said one thing in here about the way that process was involved and the fact that we would get information. She said, in this place:
… at the end of it, there will be an outcome. It is at that point that further information will be made public.
We said: “That won’t be the case. You’re doing this so you can bury it deep and have an excuse that you never had to say that you saw the information.” That is exactly what happened. She came into this place and said the information would be released. We knew it never would, and it was not.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (3.53): Mr Hanson, yet again, seeks to rewrite history on the obstetrics review at the Canberra Hospital. Indeed, Mr Hanson is well aware that the clinical review of the obstetric services, which should be of most interest to people in this place, was released in its entirety. There was information released, albeit in a
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