Page 953 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2016
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MADAM SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order and remind the minister that in accordance with standing order 118(a) he should be directly relevant to the question, which was, according to my notes: why did the government change the measurement?
MR CORBELL: We changed the measurement to reflect demand. That is a realistic and sensible thing for any government to do.
Mr Hanson: Point of order, Madam Speaker, on relevance.
MR CORBELL: I have just answered the question, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson on the point of order. Stop the clock.
Mr Hanson: He should explain the relevance, not the figure—the 85 per cent to 90 per cent. He should explain the way in which the data is collected and accounted for to record bed occupancy. The government changed those figures in the last annual report—
MADAM SPEAKER: Can you get to the point of order?
Mr Hanson: so the minister is not answering the question, which is: why has the government changed the way in which bed occupancy is measured, not the target? It relates to the way it is measured.
MADAM SPEAKER: On the point of order, I think that it relates to my upholding my previous point of order but—
Mr Hanson: Yes, note this, Simon.
MADAM SPEAKER: Do not interrupt me, Mr Hanson, when I am making a ruling. As I was saying, it relates to the previous occasion on which I upheld the point of order but seeing that Mr Corbell had probably got 27 seconds out—probably less—it is hard to tell whether he is going to comply with my ruling on the point of order. I call the Minister for Health.
MR CORBELL: Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I said, why did we change the measure? We changed the measure to reflect increases in demand. That is why we changed the measure. But I can provide some further advice on how we are tracking against that—
MADAM SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired. I thought I had asked for the clocks to be stopped, but I obviously had not; I am sorry. A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Are any of the public hospital beds counted in fact as chairs, pools or gym equipment as previously asserted?
MR CORBELL: The figures are reported consistent with the national methodology.
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