Page 939 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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Mrs Dunne said I was determined to cover it up. That is patently incorrect. I released both the interim report and the final report the day after receiving them. There is no doubt that it is challenging. I have repeatedly said that I acknowledge that. There has been transparency in this report like no other report into this area before.
I note, as Mrs Dunne did not, that the panel found from the submissions that staff had cautious optimism about new leadership across the public health system. The panel also acknowledged significant changes that had been instituted in recent times. The review has allowed staff and stakeholders to be heard, to share their experiences and their stories and to contribute. I am utterly committed to making sure that the recommendations are fully implemented.
Madam Speaker, in the time that I have left, I would like to focus again on some of the successes in the health service. They go to activity not just in our hospitals but in the community, in health policy, about primary care, prevention, our immunisation program, our alcohol and drug strategy, mental health, and health and medical research. We are leading on many fronts.
These are things that have not been acknowledged once by the opposition, Madam Speaker. Not once have they proposed a new policy; not once have they made a positive contribution to help keep our community healthy. Here we are again today with the same issues, with Mrs Dunne ignoring multiple statements made by me to make her political point. Once again, we see relentlessly negative politics from Mrs Dunne, attacking a minister but undermining the confidence of staff and undermining the confidence of the community in our public health system.
It is not good enough from the opposition. I will continue to stand up for our staff and our patients in our health system, and I will continue to make improvements but also highlight the incredible good work they do every day. (Time expired.)
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (11.12): I am disappointed that, once again, we have an example of the minister throwing staff under a bus. Rather than actually deal with this issue head-on, rather than actually deal with her own decisions, instead, awkwardly and poorly, she tries to reconstruct this debate so that it is all about attacking staff. That is what we have heard for the past 15 minutes. Despite the fact that she says people should not be attacking staff, she then spent 15 minutes making up a faux case about attacking staff. Instead what we should have—
Mr Ramsay: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Stop the clock, please.
Mr Ramsay: Madam Speaker, last night Mrs Dunne raised a point of order, in relation to using the words “making up”, that that would reflect on the character of the minister. I invite you to make an equivalent ruling today.
Mrs Dunne: On the point of order, this is a substantive motion about the capacity of the minister to do her job, and it is the place where such allegations are made. The
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