Page 2691 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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her say that the claim was cowardly. I am not entirely sure that that is not acceptable. So I will invite you to continue, Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. All of the allegations that Mr Hanson has levelled at me, and indeed at members of my family, are without any evidence or without any merit. There is an Auditor-General’s inquiry into the matter around the data changes at the Canberra Hospital. I wrote to the Auditor-General seeking that inquiry. I have provided the Auditor-General with all of the information, if she has not received it already, that has been provided to me over the last 18 months around emergency department data, to show and indicate to her the information that I have been provided with. That matter is active and will be concluded, I understand, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, and that surely will provide Mr Hanson with all of the information that he has been seeking and that he would have us believe that he has been denied; that is simply not correct either.
We have a lot to be proud of in relation to our health system here. It is a health system that will be envied by many Australians. I am not sensitive at all in terms of what the Leader of the Opposition is claiming. I am not sensitive at all. I have been around here for a long time. I understand the game that will be played. I understand the focus that I will attract from the Liberal Party. I understand all of that. That is politics. But actually advertising that we have got the worst health system in the country is equal to Canberra bashing, and that is what they are engaging in. I saw it in Mr Smyth’s media release last night attacking the budget—there, in one of the lines was, “We have the worst health system in the country.” There it was. They are all putting their hand up. They are all rushing that message out the door.
Whilst you are trying to attack me, by all means—I almost look forward to it—the issue is that we do not have the worst public health system in the country. It is simply not true. On any measure it is not true. If you measure a health system on outcomes, it is not true. For you to take out paid advertising to run that nasty, offensive message is outrageous, and unprecedented I would imagine. In a time when all—
Mr Doszpot: The truth hurts, Katy.
MS GALLAGHER: It does not hurt, Mr Doszpot. In fact, I was talking with my four-year-old about it last night. She saw the ad and she thought that my outfit was nice, my hair was nice but that the music was very scary. And I said, “Well, that is a pretty reasonable assessment.”
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot!
MS GALLAGHER: It does not hurt.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hanson!
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