Page 5466 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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This, of course, was within a few minutes of Mr Hanson suggesting that perhaps we have a respectful discussion, as the minister for health disrespectfully walks out of the chamber. The analogy the minister for health used to show her disagreement with the opposition was an outrage and disgusting, and the member should apologise.
The item I wish to speak on is some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the opposition for not getting on board with the zeitgeist on this issue. I particularly want to draw attention to comments reported in the Canberra Times recently where it was claimed that the opposition had received in excess of a dozen requests for Dr Caldicott to brief the opposition on pill testing and that we had ignored them. I put on the record my interactions with Dr Caldicott.
I have met Dr Caldicott twice and have sent one email to Dr Caldicott. I met Dr Caldicott at a public health forum before the election last year and I met him at another public health forum here in the Assembly in March this year. On both occasions I said to Dr Caldicott that I would like to visit Calvary emergency department to look at the issues in relation to drug and alcohol that he was talking about; the impact of drug and alcohol issues on his emergency department. I made that request during the election, and when I met Dr Caldicott again in March this year I made the same request.
I followed it up with a letter to Dr Caldicott. He came back to me and said that he would be happy to do that, but because it was Calvary Public Hospital I would have to get clearance from the minister. In late March, I wrote to the minister for health, who very graciously wrote back and said she did not have a problem and that if Calvary and the doctors were happy I was free to go to Calvary and have the visit that I had talked about with Dr Caldicott.
I immediately sent an email to Dr Caldicott with a copy of the minister’s letter, asking him to be in contact so that we could make an arrangement for me to visit accident and emergency late one Friday or Saturday night because I was interested in the issues that he raised. Since then, radio silence. Since mid-May this year there has been no communication between me and Dr Caldicott or my office and Dr Caldicott. The last correspondence came from me directly in an email to Dr Caldicott.
There has never been an offer for briefing, except, of course, the multitude of snide comments that have been on Twitter, and none of those have been an offer for briefing. There has been a challenge to a debate and a range of other things, but there has never been an offer of a briefing formally sent to my office. I have asked my staff on a number of occasions to check whether we have missed anything. We have been through the junk email, the spam filter, all of these things; there has been nothing. Radio silence from Dr Caldicott. I want to put on the record here that neither Mr Hanson nor I are ignoring Dr Caldicott and the proponents; we have just not heard from them.
When constituents get in touch with me and ask to come and talk to me about particular issues—I am the shadow minister for health, I have an interest in this issue—I talk to my constituents. This particular constituent has decided to shout at me and Mr Hanson through Twitter but has never offered us a briefing.
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